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Prices may possibly rise, very true. We as a society/economy have gotten hooked on cheap goods. Perhaps too cheap in some cases. It's also possible that certai

by ptmcc 5y ago

Prices may possibly rise, very true. We as a society/economy have gotten hooked on cheap goods. Perhaps too cheap in some cases. It's also possible that certain businesses and products we've grown accustomed to, at the prices we are used to, are simply not viable anymore as the market changes. The market giveth and the market taketh away. A lot of business owners complaining about a "labor shortage" love being pro free market when it works in their favor, but whine when it turns around on them.

Ericson2314 5y ago
Also the labor share of income has fallen in recent decades, so there is plenty of slack overall for wages to go up without raising prices.
bodge5000 5y ago
> A lot of business owners complaining about a "labor shortage" love being pro free market when it works in their favor, but whine when it turns around on them. Nail on the head, right here. "Burger flippers" are entitled if they expect to live off their work, but when no "Burger flippers" will come work for them, oh woe is me. They'll preach about survival of the fittest until they figure out they're not the fittest, and then suddenly its not such a good idea
- jackson1442 5y ago
  Exactly. Another comment on this submission (on a completely different thread) put it very well- businesses have no intrinsic right to exist. If you or me decided we didn't want to pay for the rising cost of food, rent, etc., we could be out on the streets and it's their fault. If businesses decide they don't want to pay for the rising cost of labor, a bunch of armchair economists come out and defend them. Why we feel the need to treat businesses better than we treat other people is beyond me.
  - bodge5000 5y ago
    Of course when you say this you get a bunch of people saying "But think of the small businesses", as if exploitation is okay as long as your a small business. Employee's have no right to an employer: Absolutely fine, no issues there, the way things should be Employers have no right to an employee: Blasphemy! What a cruel, terrible world we live in
- effingwewt 5y ago
  This happened with gas prices too. When they dipped too far the oil tycoons started screaming they weren't making enough per barrel. Not once, ever, have the oil speculators thought the prices were too high and yanked them back down.
  - lazerpants 5y ago
    Oil prices literally went negative last year when speculators did exactly that.
    - prewett 5y ago
      I don't think it was speculators thinking the oil price was too high. It was that nobody wanted to take delivery on a contract expiring that day, partly because there wasn't any space at the Oklahoma storage facility to take delivery, which presents a massive storage problem. The price promptly returned to its previous level the next day, even within that day, I think. -$40/barrel was panic, not speculators pushing prices down. (Not only does one not want to take delivery of a commodity unless you are actually using it, but I think crude oil gives off hydrogen sulfide, which is poisonous in small quantities, making storage even more problematic)
      - effingwewt 5y ago
        This was what happened, and why you heard people saying things like 'I've got some barrels in my garage we could use.' I reiterate that not once ever have gas/oil speculators lowered prices because they went too high, but they damn sure froze prices when they thought they were dipping too low. I seem to remember people saying back when it 'dipped too low' (speculators'/tycoons' words) that they most certainly would retard prices if they went too high. They pinky-double-scouts'-honor swore. Never happened. Especially scummy because oil prices affect everything. I believe it was late 90s, the last time gas dipped to $1/gal and below. It didnt last but a few days but to hear the oil companies cry it was the end of times and they were going bankrupt. As an aside has anyone seen the Dubai videos of the children of these tycoons getting bored and racing/flipping/destroying $500k+ cars? If not search Saudi super car stunts/flips/races/wheelies/crashes/whatever. Obviously oil prices are priced accurately and the companies/families that own them are making the slimmest of margins, we should cut them slack- oh wait, that's every business now. I hate what humanity has become.
JohnWhigham 5y ago
Kind of makes me think back to the 70s/80s when consumer electronics were truly cost prohibitive to most people. Maybe that's kind of how it should be. Maybe a smartphone shouldn't be $500, it should be $3000 instead.

by ptmcc 5y ago

Ericson2314 5y ago

Also the labor share of income has fallen in recent decades, so there is plenty of slack overall for wages to go up without raising prices.

bodge5000 5y ago

> A lot of business owners complaining about a "labor shortage" love being pro free market when it works in their favor, but whine when it turns around on them. Nail on the head, right here. "Burger flippers" are entitled if they expect to live off their work, but when no "Burger flippers" will come work for them, oh woe is me. They'll preach about survival of the fittest until they figure out they're not the fittest, and then suddenly its not such a good idea

jackson1442 5y ago
Exactly. Another comment on this submission (on a completely different thread) put it very well- businesses have no intrinsic right to exist. If you or me decided we didn't want to pay for the rising cost of food, rent, etc., we could be out on the streets and it's their fault. If businesses decide they don't want to pay for the rising cost of labor, a bunch of armchair economists come out and defend them. Why we feel the need to treat businesses better than we treat other people is beyond me.
- bodge5000 5y ago
  Of course when you say this you get a bunch of people saying "But think of the small businesses", as if exploitation is okay as long as your a small business. Employee's have no right to an employer: Absolutely fine, no issues there, the way things should be Employers have no right to an employee: Blasphemy! What a cruel, terrible world we live in
effingwewt 5y ago
This happened with gas prices too. When they dipped too far the oil tycoons started screaming they weren't making enough per barrel. Not once, ever, have the oil speculators thought the prices were too high and yanked them back down.
- lazerpants 5y ago
  Oil prices literally went negative last year when speculators did exactly that.
  - prewett 5y ago
    I don't think it was speculators thinking the oil price was too high. It was that nobody wanted to take delivery on a contract expiring that day, partly because there wasn't any space at the Oklahoma storage facility to take delivery, which presents a massive storage problem. The price promptly returned to its previous level the next day, even within that day, I think. -$40/barrel was panic, not speculators pushing prices down. (Not only does one not want to take delivery of a commodity unless you are actually using it, but I think crude oil gives off hydrogen sulfide, which is poisonous in small quantities, making storage even more problematic)
    - effingwewt 5y ago
      This was what happened, and why you heard people saying things like 'I've got some barrels in my garage we could use.' I reiterate that not once ever have gas/oil speculators lowered prices because they went too high, but they damn sure froze prices when they thought they were dipping too low. I seem to remember people saying back when it 'dipped too low' (speculators'/tycoons' words) that they most certainly would retard prices if they went too high. They pinky-double-scouts'-honor swore. Never happened. Especially scummy because oil prices affect everything. I believe it was late 90s, the last time gas dipped to $1/gal and below. It didnt last but a few days but to hear the oil companies cry it was the end of times and they were going bankrupt. As an aside has anyone seen the Dubai videos of the children of these tycoons getting bored and racing/flipping/destroying $500k+ cars? If not search Saudi super car stunts/flips/races/wheelies/crashes/whatever. Obviously oil prices are priced accurately and the companies/families that own them are making the slimmest of margins, we should cut them slack- oh wait, that's every business now. I hate what humanity has become.

JohnWhigham 5y ago

Kind of makes me think back to the 70s/80s when consumer electronics were truly cost prohibitive to most people. Maybe that's kind of how it should be. Maybe a smartphone shouldn't be $500, it should be $3000 instead.