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[-] protist@mander.xyz 104 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Everyone seems to think saying this is all he's doing, but that's incorrect.

He issued an executive order in 2021 to orient his entire administration to increase enforcement of antitrust law among all departments and promote competitive practices wherever possible. There has definitely been an uptick in antitrust cases since then, and inflation has also decreased significantly.

https://www.justice.gov/atr/antitrust-case-filings

[-] SupraMario@lemmy.world 21 points 11 months ago

There's a shit load of people who would disagree with you... inflation might have decreased based on some metrics no one uses...but my $100 at the grocery store does fuck all to buy food now.

[-] meco03211@lemmy.world 13 points 11 months ago

Inflation doesn't stop though. The rate your $100 is losing value has slowed from when inflation was highest.

[-] protist@mander.xyz 11 points 11 months ago

Disagree with me how? The inflation rate has objectively decreased from last year and the year prior. That doesn't mean prices have gone down, just that they're going up now at a rate closer to the historical average over the past century. People absolutely can afford less now than 3 years ago after inflation spiked, but with it returning to average levels, wages are also starting to catch up more.

These are all general population trends also, and can't be used to describe or predict any one person's situation

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[-] CapeWearingAeroplane@sopuli.xyz 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

You have to remember: Inflation tells you how fast prices are increasing. We want a certain degree of inflation (typically around 2% is healthy for the economy). The problem occurs when inflation is too high, so that wages don't keep up, that's what we're seeing now. When inflation decreases, that means prices are growing less fast, not that they're decreasing.

Decreasing prices (across the board) would be deflation, which is terrible (think Great Depression / 1930's Germany terrible). If your 100$ is worth more tomorrow than it is today, then why would you spend it today? You wouldn't (except for necessities). That leads to a massive drop in investments, not only in the "Wall street" sense, but in things like building houses, building factories, hiring people etc. it also causes wages to decrease. This goes on until production and wages hit a low point where there's huge amounts of money in circulation, very low production/employment, and very low prices. That's when you get a whiplash to a situation where everyone has money to buy stuff, but no one is making it, aaaaand we have HyperInflation™

In short: Your 100$ has in fact never been worth less than now, and that's a good thing. We just want it to decrease in value more slowly, and things are going in the right direction. It could still take a year or two for wages to catch back up, but we'll get there. Current policies are helping the situation.

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[-] GraniteM@lemmy.world 19 points 11 months ago

inflation has also decreased significantly.

Oh, good!

[-] _stranger_@lemmy.world 40 points 11 months ago

Would...would you prefer the beating continue?

[-] GraniteM@lemmy.world 11 points 11 months ago

"Would you prefer the beating continue?" is not a great campaign slogan. Getting inflation under control is a good thing, and the Biden administration should receive credit for its efforts. But ordinary people are suffering right now from the effects of inflation, and when the cost of living is already unsustainable, one doesn't want to hear that it won't be getting significantly worse, one wants to hear that it's getting better.

It's not fair that Republicans get to wreck shit (which is comparatively easy) so that Democrats have to come in and spend all their time and energy just fixing the last guy's mess and hardly have any left to try and make any actual improvements. It's a fundamentally broken aspect of our politics. But most voters don't think in those terms, they think in terms of what they need to get through the day. If you can't figure out a way to make real tangible improvements in normal peoples' lives, you're going to have a bad time come election day, deserved or not.

[-] CoggyMcFee@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

It’s just… the place where truly significant things can happen on that front is in the legislature, and they’re completely fucked. But people either put all the blame on the president, or if they recognize Congress’s role, they don’t appreciate that the Dems never had the numbers at any point during Biden’s term to do more than they managed to do.

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[-] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 12 points 11 months ago

You seem like the kind person who, if firefighters rescued you from a burning building, would be pissed at them for not preventing the fire in the first place.

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[-] EveningPancakes@lemm.ee 49 points 11 months ago

This is going to do fuck all.

Geico decided to raise my monthly insurance rate by 129%, despite nothing on my end contributing to that (no tickets, no accidents). When I called them to make sure this wasn't an error, essentially I was told "Sorry, parts got more expensive. Fuck off."

[-] Anamnesis@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

That's weird. GEICO didn't raise my insurance at all, and that's despite my ex (who's still on the policy) getting in an accident a few months ago. So many of their deciaions just seem random.

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[-] SinningStromgald@lemmy.world 40 points 11 months ago

If only our government actually worked for the people instead of corporations.

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[-] AceFuzzLord@lemm.ee 39 points 11 months ago

Oh boy! The president telling his bosses to stop screwing over the common people! Surely this will not backfire in any way whatsoever! /s

[-] GiddyGap@lemm.ee 12 points 11 months ago

If history is any indication, Republicans will definitely not take the side of corporations over consumers, right?

[-] AceFuzzLord@lemm.ee 5 points 11 months ago

I don't have faith in either side not to be bought up.

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[-] Endorkend@kbin.social 36 points 11 months ago

Since corporations are expected to display near continuous growth, they literally can't stop the gouging.

Until they are forced to somehow, things will get worse.

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[-] EmpathicVagrant@lemmy.world 31 points 11 months ago
[-] meco03211@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

Is Biden the girl in fight videos just yelling stop?

[-] EmpathicVagrant@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

Or everyone recording in the old “dont help just film” type videos.

[-] mydude@lemmy.world 24 points 11 months ago

This reminds me of the time Hillary said she went to wall street to tell them to "cut it out". LOL https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ9K9kpgkzg

[-] ChihuahuaOfDoom@lemmy.world 22 points 11 months ago

Biden softly whispers to corporations adding in "pretty please?"

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[-] Hominine@lemmy.world 22 points 11 months ago

Was traveling last month and just saw Xfinity decided to raise my internet-only bill by 40 bucks a month, and the second charge just went through. Not even an email on the rate increase from what I can tell, just a notification that I got Peacock streaming "included" (a 5.99 value).

Looking forward to the call tomorrow. Any advice outside of staying zen and remembering the human on the other end of the line?

[-] flipht@kbin.social 11 points 11 months ago

Just remember that it's business. It should be boring. They raised your rate, it isn't worth that price to you, and be bored with asking them to process the cancellation.

If it is worth some price to you, they may offer you another deal. Know what you're willing to accept, but don't expect anything.

Also, you may be able to bypass all of this by checking to see if you can cancel from their app or website.

[-] TechyDad@lemmy.world 22 points 11 months ago

The problem with Internet service providers is that they are pretty much needed in the modern era and they are often monopolies.

For example, I have Spectrum. I use the Internet for light data items like posting on social media and checking email, but also heavier data uses like working from home and streaming videos.

If Spectrum decided that my monthly rate was going up by 100%, I could theoretically cancel my service, but I wouldn't have anywhere to go to. There are no other ISPs in the area. I work from home as a web developer and so can't be without Internet access.

Spectrum has me and they know it. Thanks to being a monopoly, the price isn't "whatever the customer will pay," it's "whatever the monopoly says it is."

[-] SwampYankee@mander.xyz 4 points 11 months ago

Ah, but see, they're not a monopoly because you can get DSL or a 5G hotspot! Those are viable alternatives, right?

~ FCC

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[-] sramder@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

YMMV, but I've ended up with substantially better deals twice now just by calling. It's getting harder to get a live human, but they have more flexibility. I too have internet only, so no bund discounts either.

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[-] halfempty@kbin.social 18 points 11 months ago

I would like to see more concrete actions limiting corporate price-gouging, and not just words. Corporations aren't going to do anything just because the president says "stop doing it".

[-] SuiXi3D@kbin.social 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Until we get a wealth tax, nothing will change. And even then, all the rich folks will just move out of the country.

[-] PenguinMage@lemmy.world 13 points 11 months ago

We tax wealth so little. Even some tax wouldn't be worth the move. We're just so bought & sold the idea of actually making people who aren't poor pay their dues is frightening.

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[-] Sconrad122@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Big Grape would never allow a wrath tax

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[-] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 5 points 11 months ago

And even then, all the rich folks will just move out of the country.

Mission Accomplished.

[-] SwampYankee@mander.xyz 8 points 11 months ago

There's a big uptick in antitrust action under the Biden administration. There's more than just talk here and the administration is trying to push this in a progressive direction. Unfortunately, the regulatory agencies and courts are infected with neoliberalism due to 4 decades of neoliberal domination of our government, economy, and society, so it's not as successful as it may have been in, say, the 70s. But that just means we need to keep that rudder pinned to the left until we get there. The absolute worst thing we could do right now for this and so many other reasons is elect a republican.

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[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 18 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Too tired to cook tonight, my wife already cooked for herself, so I hopped on GrubHub:

That's before GrubHub fees, delivery fees, driver tip.

A single Whopper meal with all that included:

Meal - $16.47 (large sized)
Delivery Fee - $0.99
Service Fee - $2.14
Total - $19.60

Add a tip for your driver (20% suggested) $3.72

(No idea how they're getting that... $3.72 would be 20% of $18.60 so I guess they're calculating it based on the meal + the service fee?)

Regardless, $3.72 is a shit tip for a delivery driver, $4 is my minimum.

So dinner, for one person, delivered, $23.60.

Anyone remember when a Whopper was $0.99?

(yeah, no, made a sandwich instead)

[-] Vespair@lemm.ee 22 points 11 months ago

That's not actually before all fees though, because on top of the fees you mentioned that GrubHub/door dash/etc list clearly, they also directly mark-up the food prices from the menu of the restaurants they list. If you ordered the same exact items for pickup through the BK app, they would be noticeably cheaper.

Not to say fast food prices haven't and aren't rising, or that they haven't become expensive for what they offer, but listing a GrubHub price as prove of that point is disingenuous and misleading

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[-] Coreidan@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

If you don’t like delivery fees then go pick it up yourself. It’s always been this way.

[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

Even without delivery fees, $16 for Burger King is bullshit.

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[-] MsPenguinette@lemmy.world 18 points 11 months ago

Yeah, asking them to lower prices will definitely work 🙄

[-] Drusas@kbin.social 11 points 11 months ago

Better not try and start anywhere then, huh?

[-] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 10 points 11 months ago

It's not even a start. You should be able to criticize ineffective or inconsequential actions that are clearly made to assure the public that something is being done without actually accomplishing anything without someone calling it "a start".

To be clear, while my tone here could easily be interpreted as aggressive towards you, I don't meant it to be that way. It's nice to think that maybe someone in the government actually wants to help the average worker and is actually willing to stand up to our capitalists but it simply isn't the case. Our government officials not only profit from the capitalist we are asking the to limit but they often are those very capitalist.

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[-] CapeWearingAeroplane@sopuli.xyz 4 points 11 months ago

There have been actions as well. Among them an EO to the administration to work harder on antitrust enforcement. This has resulted in a significant increase in antitrust cases.

When you see Biden "just talk about something" it's a pretty safe bet to assume that quite a bit is already happening behind the curtains, or even in the open. He's talking about it to bring attention to it as well.

[-] ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 14 points 11 months ago

Our union finally got our contract after 11 months of negotiation signed... and our health insurance immediately hiked to eat the difference in raises and COLA.

Every level of employee is just getting their wages hoovered by insurance, just about everywhere.

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[-] profdc9@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago

Wait! I thought free market competition was supposed to ensure the consumer gets the best value for the lowest price. Don't tell me that the free market isn't working?

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[-] muse@kbin.social 9 points 11 months ago

I hope he threw in a "cut the malarkey" for good measure

[-] Techmaster@lemm.ee 8 points 11 months ago

Corporations: Well bust my buttons, why didn't you say so!? Come on in!

[-] sagrotan@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

"Please, don't be so greedy" It's comes the image of the dude in mind who's sweeping the floor with a stick.

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this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2023
402 points (96.7% liked)

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