What is an average person living in the US supposed to do about corporations raising prices?
They keep raising prices, stating that it's due to inflation, but then they keep having record profits.
Meanwhile, the average American can barely afford rent or food nowadays.
What are we to do? Vote? I have been but that doesn't seem to do much since I'm just voting for a representative that makes the actual decisions.
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This is the answer. Its simple but not easy. Do you think the average person knows what they're spending money on each month? And how much? One chick I knew was spending almost $500 a month dining out!! A MONTH!
It is difficult to not have any "fun" purchases tho, nearly impossible imo. But you have to have spending discipline and next to no people have that.
But let's say everyone stops spending on non essentials, taken to its conclusion that would leave only grocery stores, dr offices, mechanics, and banks left to do business lol maybe a few others.
But.. those places all price gouge too :(.
Everyone starts growing veggies and fruit, and only buying direct from farmers.
This is good for rural areas and mid sized areas especially. In buffer cities there are lots of co-ops and other resources to do this as well. It's not easy, but it's also one of the easier things to do. Even a small change like buying a few things locally produced is better than nothing.
All are also experiencing higher operating, production costs. Costs that are passed on to the customer.
During and after covid pandemic many fortunate 100 and fortune 500 companies made record breaking profits....
It's just a big, convoluted mix of factors that are hard to separate. Yes, there are far too many bad actors. But also people are getting paid more for the same job, and the value of the dollar has gone to shit. I believe compared to 2019, a dollar in 2019 is $1.18 now. 18% inflation.
Money printer go brrrrr. Everybody, everywhere, is making record breaking profits all the time. And then you've got employers blowing smoke up your bum, saying "You got a 15% raise, wowee zowie, you're more than fairly compensated!" And it's like nice try, jackass, a 15% raise doesn't even keep up with inflation. 🙄
I am not in favor of bad actors, of course, but I know I'm paying a fuckton more than I used to pay for the same stuff. It's just...built-in.
For tracking expenses, I use an app called You Need a Budget (YNAB). It's pretty handy and is great for showing you where all your money goes.