4 ms·

Yes, it’s bad. Gas and rent are very high. People are broke and not spending. Everyone in retail, including myself, is feeling it.

treeman79 4y ago
And food. Stuff is almost double from a couple years ago. Local restaurants that survived Covid are shutting down due to cost of food. Others are adding x% to food bill to cover cost. Things are rising so fast they don’t want to keep ordering new menus.
- mehphp 4y ago
  Eating out now is ridiculous. It's extremely easy to spend $100 for a family of four.
  - addajones 4y ago
    It’s extremely easy to spent $100 on restaurants in LA just for 2 even. It’s obscene.
  - czbond 4y ago
    It is! Our family of 4 generally goes out on Friday; as a sign of change last night we decided to order out, but eat at home. What would be $80, was now $45. (getting rid of the 4 drinks, appetizer, and ample server tip). I have to imagine consumers will become tired of the cost increases - we put up with it a few months, and decided "no".
  - silisili 4y ago
    Yeah it's insane. Family of three, 58 dollars before tip. And this was a sit down very casual burger type joint.
silisili 4y ago
Sorry to hear that. I have no idea how most people afford rent. I do OK, and rent hikes the last 2 years were making me nervous. I cannot imagine how someone making retail/service wages are even surviving. I really wish the government would or could do something to help here.
- adam_arthur 4y ago
  What they could do, lower tariffs, subsidize capital investment into production of lumber/housing, aggressively push and fight for higher density residential zoning, limit leverage allowed for investors of buy and hold rental properties, eliminate capital gains tax advantage for income above $1 million/year, enact temporary taxes on non essential consumption items, restart student loans (billions a month in excess spending for consumers). Etc etc Instead they keep trying to tie BBB to inflation fighting, when its provisions are nothing of the sort. They handed consumers far too much money, and need to suck it back up in a way that targets discretionary spending (vs essential spending). Too bad they won't...
  - PuppyTailWags 4y ago
    How much of this would be approved by both parties? [The democrats in the house, the republicans in the senate]
    - adam_arthur 4y ago
      The Democrats passed the ARP with 0 republican support, and they can do the same now via reconciliation. But they are proposing BBB, not these things. Reconciliation does have limitations in that the matters must be budget related, but seems pretty easy to fit most of these under that umbrella. They can resume student loans at the stroke of a pen

treeman79 4y ago

And food. Stuff is almost double from a couple years ago. Local restaurants that survived Covid are shutting down due to cost of food. Others are adding x% to food bill to cover cost. Things are rising so fast they don’t want to keep ordering new menus.

mehphp 4y ago
Eating out now is ridiculous. It's extremely easy to spend $100 for a family of four.
- addajones 4y ago
  It’s extremely easy to spent $100 on restaurants in LA just for 2 even. It’s obscene.
- czbond 4y ago
  It is! Our family of 4 generally goes out on Friday; as a sign of change last night we decided to order out, but eat at home. What would be $80, was now $45. (getting rid of the 4 drinks, appetizer, and ample server tip). I have to imagine consumers will become tired of the cost increases - we put up with it a few months, and decided "no".
- silisili 4y ago
  Yeah it's insane. Family of three, 58 dollars before tip. And this was a sit down very casual burger type joint.

silisili 4y ago

Sorry to hear that. I have no idea how most people afford rent. I do OK, and rent hikes the last 2 years were making me nervous. I cannot imagine how someone making retail/service wages are even surviving. I really wish the government would or could do something to help here.

adam_arthur 4y ago
What they could do, lower tariffs, subsidize capital investment into production of lumber/housing, aggressively push and fight for higher density residential zoning, limit leverage allowed for investors of buy and hold rental properties, eliminate capital gains tax advantage for income above $1 million/year, enact temporary taxes on non essential consumption items, restart student loans (billions a month in excess spending for consumers). Etc etc Instead they keep trying to tie BBB to inflation fighting, when its provisions are nothing of the sort. They handed consumers far too much money, and need to suck it back up in a way that targets discretionary spending (vs essential spending). Too bad they won't...
- PuppyTailWags 4y ago
  How much of this would be approved by both parties? [The democrats in the house, the republicans in the senate]
  - adam_arthur 4y ago
    The Democrats passed the ARP with 0 republican support, and they can do the same now via reconciliation. But they are proposing BBB, not these things. Reconciliation does have limitations in that the matters must be budget related, but seems pretty easy to fit most of these under that umbrella. They can resume student loans at the stroke of a pen