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.
Cutting back on spending is the only thing I know that works. When consumers don’t buy things, the prices come down.
For groceries this means splurging less, avoiding things you don’t need (drink tea instead of soda, don’t buy snacks and chips). Fruits and vegetables are definitely still cheaper than prepared foods in many cases. Even when frozen. And they can be used to make a meal stretch, along with beans and rice.
Buy cheap bar soap and store brands of basic things.
Coupons aren’t really a thing anymore, but you can use the app for stores like the grocery, Target, Walmart, to “clip” deals and save.
A lot of the high prices right now are just greed. They aren’t tied to actual supply chain or labor issues. A grocery store in France just told PepsiCo to take a hike because their prices were so outrageous.
If you want the government to get involved, I encourage you to write your representatives about enforcing existing anti-trust laws. The mega mergers and buyouts are driving prices up because of less competition. Kroger wants to buy Albertsons for example. That just means more layoffs and higher grocery prices.
Hope this helps.
cutting back spending is hard when it’s one of the main ways to feel joy; you already have to spend on groceries and bills anyway, and it feels that much more stark and grim denying yourself the fun foods and nice convenience items to save like $10, then your rent goes up $50 because they said so, and so what’s the point anyhow…
This is why I pirate a lot of my media. Aaarrrr.
At the very least I can be entertained while I am cutting expenses.
The biggest thing is to be aware of how much things should cost, and just refuse to buy them if they’re gouging.
Can I afford $13 for a case of Coca-Cola? Sure, I absolutely can. I can afford $24 a case. I’m just not willing to pay that. That same case was $7 in 2019. You can’t tell me their costs have doubled.
And even if I believed their costs doubled (and I don’t), that doesn’t mean their prices have to double. They’re not entitled to growing percentage profit on a larger number. Just because they made 20% on that $7 case doesn’t mean they deserve 20% on that $13 case. 20% of $7 is $1.40. They could absolutely take $2 profit on $10 and be happy with it. But they won’t. Because people don’t pay attention and they can get away with it.
There are enough barriers to entry and cooperation among would-be competitors that they can charge basically whatever the duck they choose.
I too choose this man’s duck.
While I personally do appreciate the level of detail and amount of options provided in this reply, the more straightforward and longer-term solution is to eat the rich.
Taxing the Rich might help as well.
Nothing more straightforward than hyperbole. /s
I’m fortunate enough to not be in a position where money is tight for food, but re: beans and rice, I absolutely love my instant pot!
Mexican-style beans are, IMHO, delicious, easy to make, and dirt cheap. I love them, our toddler loves them, and it’s easy on the wallet. Dry beans are really affordable, and a 25lb bag of rice is great to have in the pantry (note: careful with bulk brown rice as I think it can go rancid). A stove and a pot can do both, but an instant pot and a rice cooker makes it so easy.
I also drink a fair amount of coffee, but again, bulk or even just “make coffee at home” is very affordable. A few cups at Starbucks costs the same as a pound of beans (which yields many cups).
Exactly this. Also try Indian Madras Lentils packets (I get them at Costco), really cheap for a serving and microwavable. Also bulk Indian spice pastes if you can get them cheap enough. Makes the rice+beans gourmet for dirt cheap. And with coffee, I’ve gotten to the point where the biggest cost is actually filters. To help with this I got a reusable mesh filter from Amazon. Works well, easy to clean, and holds up (I’ve used it for over 100 cups now). Then you’re at like 10 - 15¢ / cup if you use bulk coffee mate and sugar.
Beans, rice, and Instant Pot are the best. Instant Pots are also highly repairable in the unlikely even that they break.
Voting is necessary but not sufficient.
The big other thing is to build external power. That’s not like militias per se (though with the rising fascism it’s not a bad idea), but rather stuff like gardening, learning to do repairs, and practicing mutual aid. Reduce your and your community’s dependence on the corporations. And make it an issue people around you care about.
Learning to do repairs yourself has never been easier thanks to YouTube. There’s also a ton of sources for replacement parts online these days, many of which provide repair videos for the more common parts. My dishwasher broke a few months ago; $60 for a new intake pump and a few hours of my time and it’s working as if it’s brand new. My TV died out a little over a year ago; $35 for a new power supply (probably could’ve repaired it for a few bucks if I had just replaced a capacitor or two) and less than an hour of my time and it’s right as rain. Most repair jobs are a lot less daunting than people assume they are.
Unions! Rising prices are irrelevant when workers are paid fairly.
Giving everyone more money will not fix the price of housing, It’ll do the opposite.
Cry and hope for a revolution. Since the Supreme Court decided money is speech, we have no power. Representatives don’t care about their constituents unless a message comes with a “charitable donation”. The rich are seemingly immune to laws, but somehow there’s a surplus of money available to fuck over the little guy. This is a failed country of the corporations, and for the corporations.
Not to promote violence, but I’m afraid nothing is likely to change until people are pushed far enough to do more than hope.
It’s okay, this is Lemmy, not reddit.
Unfortunately, many of the people who most heavily dislike the corporate-controlled status quo are feverishly attempting to pass laws to make it harder and more dangerous to do anything other than hope.
Short answer: get paid more
Medium answer: become unionized so that you can bargain collectively for more pay instead of individually. It’s like forming a political party with your labour, and then voting for yourself
Unions are a very good answer to this. They aren’t a complete solution, but they are a big step in the right direction. And they’re something almost everyone can do.
Long answer: direct action
Unions wont do shit unless they also stop supporting capitalist owned politicians thats keeping them down
France has the right idea about what we were supposed to do.
Protest about every single issue then vote for the most milquetoast president possible, with a side helping of fascist Russian-puppet as a runner up?
Or get out the guillotines which soon get turned on your allies (and innocent poor people), then after that collapses get taken over by a fascist dictator, who undoes most of the progressive changes you made and rampages across Europe, killing millions of people (including French people).
In fairness a fascist or at least authoritarian dictator rampages across Europe every few hundred years, give or take a century, anyways
Why stop at Europe, no one is immune, they just have the most famous framework.
Because they did it so much it spilled over onto several other continents and replicated?
You’re right, why fight when we get a fascist Russian puppet for free and a president who literally uses Nazi rhetoric to boost his ratings.
At least if we protest, we can either get off this fucking ride or break the machine.
old family tradition
Unironically the answer is “shop less.”
Prices on goods rise when demand for goods stays sufficient to support the price going up. The less everyone buys, the less things will cost.
Prices for goods have almost nothing to do with the price of rent, but the mechanisms there are the same - it’s just that you have to encourage building rather than “live somewhere less” because the second option really isn’t tenable, for obvious reasons.
If you want rent to come down, campaign for, vote for, or even run for office to be the candidate that will change zoning laws and encourage building multifamily housing.
vote for people who are in favor of regulations
One related thing to voting that anyone can do:
Start talking about politics again. If it’s impolite to talk about politics, only the impolite will be the one’s talking. Discuss, respectfully, what your thoughts an opinions are. Challenge ridiculous ideas. Don’t just roll your eyes and walk away. Engage (as much as is reasonable, don’t start fights)and be prepared with facts.
It’s not easy. I don’t follow this advice all the time. Pick your battles when it won’t affect your career. But be prepared to have the conversation when it comes up.
Eat. The Rich.
They don’t move much, I love fatty cuts 🤤
Cleric what is this “love” you speak of.
Have you been diverting?
Edit: is the muzzle flash from his gun real?
I had to return some videotapes…
While it isn’t magic, there is a newfound pressure on the Democratic party to finally break some meaningful ground.
Unfortunately one of the biggest obstacles had been the radically conservative Supreme Court.
Simple arithmetic tells us that if just two Supreme Court Justices were to suddenly disappear from our reality, and re-emerge in another, the court would lean more progressive to allow debt relief, bodily autonomy, and hopefully more.
While there are many ways to suddenly remove people from our plane of existence, there’s no proven way to have them re-emerge in another. Obviously it would be illegal and deeply unethical to suggest such removal without the safe relocation to another plane.
So I guess just learn to kiss fascist ass 🤷♂️
Bend over and Get fucked
This, but with whatever group of people you’ve banded together with to actually afford a place to live.
Hahaha yes!! Sad crying at this because it’s so true…both beautiful and tragic.
Eat the rich. Bring back the guillotine.
What a horrible take, encouraging violence against people. For shame.
Literally nothing has ever been won from kings and oligarchs by asking nicely you naive child.
And see the progress that has made!
if you see someone stealing food…
…no, you didn’t!
Not buying things is probably the most accessible course of action. I haven’t bought a carton of eggs in probably over a year now. Yes, I heard prices went back down. But you know what? Fuck 'em. Companies can’t just price-gouge and then pretend everything’s cool.
Honestly, learning how to make/grow things yourself and forming a community of others who do the same thing for different items is the most revolutionary act you could do in this world.
Exactly. The christo-fascists love to promote the whole “prepper” thing of being self-reliant and ready for social collapse when the “Communist takeover” happens, but honestly we need to be doing that for the upcoming fascist theocratic dictatorship rn…
If you can’t afford food, heat, rent, etc., apply for assistance from things like SNAP and other programs (local, state and federal). Call 211 for information on available resources in your area.
Not sure of your means, but we can boycott. Organizations like Trader Joe’s and Aldi are a bit cheaper than their competitors while offering also using different sources. Likewise organizations like H Mart or your local farmers market source locally, giving the middle finger to Tyson (who claims inflation and profits) and Kellogs (who uses shrinkflation to claim profits). Obviously this doesn’t work for everyone, but I think the majority of city dwellers can make these moves. This also is a fuck you to any local grocery stores trying to do the same bullshit (Walmart).
In the same vein, and what I’ve done, alternative meal companies have come A LONG way. The company Huel has a instant noodles, pasta, and candy bars that are macro balanced with vitamins and nutrients all for about $5/meal. I know most people will skip this, but they’re actually really good. Mac N Cheese, pasta Bolognese and Cajun pasta have actually gotten me to go mostly vegan. There’s another one called Outstanding Foods that has cheese puffs, cookies and pork rinds that are macro balanced and delicious as well. My daily meals are often some pasta like Mac N Cheese, one of the Huel shakes (I have a ninja creami so this is ice cream in the summer), and coffee mocha cookies, and another shake. That’s 1800 calories with balanced macros and vegan that I didn’t have the really cook or think about. If I’m working out, I swap the last shake for a protein shake.
Trader Joe’s is just one more shitty company with a nice face.
Ask their warehouse workers. Who will also let you know that where Trader Joe’s sources their stuff isn’t different than other places, actually.
You will be paying the same companies, in the end.
For cheap food, rice and bulk Indian lentil packets can be around $2.50/meal for good sized portions, $1.50 - $2 for smaller portions and 3 meals/day. See also: ramen, potatoes, off-brand soy sauce, bulk dried seaweed (very healthy and cheap). use an app to track macros yourself and you can save a lot of money. This is assuming you have what you need to boil water, but even a hotplate can do ramen and rice, and potatoes microwave well. Bulk frozen chicken breasts can work for meat if you have a little more money.
Aldi appears to be a good place to work, too 👍
