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From what I can understand (which I will freely admit is somewhat limited, and biased), it seems to me that the root of the problem is that we let the very weal

From what I can understand (which I will freely admit is somewhat limited, and biased), it seems to me that the root of the problem is that we let the very wealthy soak up all the economic gains due to productivity over the course of a few decades, while also letting those with more money have more influence over our politics (thus meaning that they had the means to ensure their gains would be locked in, rather than redistributed for the benefit of those who actually created them—ie, the workers). Until we can collectively recognize this and address the staggering socioeconomic inequality in our society, we're going to keep seeing the economy limp and sputter frequently. A healthy economy needs its working class—the vast majority of people in it—to overall have healthy economic situations, enough for at least some disposable income on a regular basis on top of being able to comfortably pay for basic necessities and save a bit for the future. Ideally, it needs that to be the minimum condition, so that everyone in the economy has some genuine discretionary spending capability.

claytongulick 4y ago
The logical extrapolation from what you are saying is command economy / forced mass redistribution to wealth. It's a great exercise to research the effects of this type thing historically.
- jszymborski 4y ago
  Has this happened often in free democracies? Would be interested in seeing what the outcomes there would be.
- gpsx 4y ago
  Wage inflation could accomplish this without forced redistribution. I’m hoping we get out if this with more wage inflation than price inflation, but monetary authorities don’t have the control to get a good outcome here (regarding inflation), and business is against it.
- toomuchtodo 4y ago
  Labor unions and taxes on the wealthy? Works out well. Cutting taxes to wealth inequality reduction is a fool's errand. https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/09/the-happiest-countries-in-the-world-also-pay-a-lot-in-taxes.html https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/09/the-happiest-countries-in-th...
- mindslight 4y ago
  No, it is not. In fact, this trope of pigeonholing any criticism as if it is advocating for a "command economy" is itself a large part of how we've gotten to the present condition. The federal reserve has kept interest rates artificially low for the past few decades, to sell broken unpopular policies to the public (eg Iraq war), to enrich the financial industry, and to simulate growth. The vibrance of capitalism relies on capital being distributed, so that it competes rather than acting uniformly. By flooding the market with newly created capital from a central source, the federal reserve has completely undermined capitalism and substituted it with the politics of who gets newly created money. One of the biggest recipients of new money has been the financial industry, which has even been whitewashed as some kind of neutral actor but is anything but. This is why more and more of people's every day lives have been financialized - made legible to the financial system and parceled out into monthly payments.
s1artibartfast 4y ago
>the root of the problem is that we let the very wealthy soak up all the economic gains Not that I like it, but my understanding is the exact opposite. Inflation is going up because workers are finally getting some of the economic gains. The wealthy can gain tremendous amounts of money on paper, but it doesn't impact inflation because they aren't spending it. For example, a trillionaire isn't buying a trillion dollars worth of of steak. However, minor employment Improvement and salary means that there are tens of Millions of more people competing to buy steak in the supermarket, hence price inflation
- danaris 4y ago
  The reasons for current inflation seem to be complex. I'm willing to believe part of the reason is higher wages, as it does seem that there have been some (fairly minor) real gains over the past several months. But it's also quite clear that the increased oil prices are affecting the prices of goods and services across the board. And I've seen a number of reports of companies posting record profits and raising prices—which indicates that they're not raising prices because they have to, but because "oh, it's inflation, we have no choice" is a convenient cover for them to increase their margins. More importantly, the concern at hand is recessions, not inflation, and the comment I replied to was specifically noting the fact that there had been several significant recessions in recent years. It was the apparent fragility of our economy recently that I was attributing to the drastically increased income inequality, not inflation specifically.
  - s1artibartfast 4y ago
    >I've seen a number of reports of companies posting record profits and raising prices—which indicates that they're not raising prices because they have to You are thinking about this only from the profit side. The entire reason this can happen is because customers are willing and capable to pay more. Cost were never limiting the price because companies were making a profit before too! If you are selling steak, you raise your prices until customers stop buying. You don't stop at X profit margin. Prices go up because customers are willing and able to spend more. If you're saying they're using inflation as a cover and lying, I totally agree. But waiting for an excuse isn't what was stopping them before. >More importantly, the concern at hand is recessions, not inflation You can't separate the two. Recession is GDP loss after adjusting for inflation. The U.S. GDP without inflation is still increasing. Without inflation there would be no recession https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GDP https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GDP

claytongulick 4y ago

The logical extrapolation from what you are saying is command economy / forced mass redistribution to wealth. It's a great exercise to research the effects of this type thing historically.

jszymborski 4y ago
Has this happened often in free democracies? Would be interested in seeing what the outcomes there would be.
gpsx 4y ago
Wage inflation could accomplish this without forced redistribution. I’m hoping we get out if this with more wage inflation than price inflation, but monetary authorities don’t have the control to get a good outcome here (regarding inflation), and business is against it.
toomuchtodo 4y ago
Labor unions and taxes on the wealthy? Works out well. Cutting taxes to wealth inequality reduction is a fool's errand. https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/09/the-happiest-countries-in-the-world-also-pay-a-lot-in-taxes.html https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/09/the-happiest-countries-in-th...
mindslight 4y ago
No, it is not. In fact, this trope of pigeonholing any criticism as if it is advocating for a "command economy" is itself a large part of how we've gotten to the present condition. The federal reserve has kept interest rates artificially low for the past few decades, to sell broken unpopular policies to the public (eg Iraq war), to enrich the financial industry, and to simulate growth. The vibrance of capitalism relies on capital being distributed, so that it competes rather than acting uniformly. By flooding the market with newly created capital from a central source, the federal reserve has completely undermined capitalism and substituted it with the politics of who gets newly created money. One of the biggest recipients of new money has been the financial industry, which has even been whitewashed as some kind of neutral actor but is anything but. This is why more and more of people's every day lives have been financialized - made legible to the financial system and parceled out into monthly payments.

s1artibartfast 4y ago

>the root of the problem is that we let the very wealthy soak up all the economic gains Not that I like it, but my understanding is the exact opposite. Inflation is going up because workers are finally getting some of the economic gains. The wealthy can gain tremendous amounts of money on paper, but it doesn't impact inflation because they aren't spending it. For example, a trillionaire isn't buying a trillion dollars worth of of steak. However, minor employment Improvement and salary means that there are tens of Millions of more people competing to buy steak in the supermarket, hence price inflation

danaris 4y ago
The reasons for current inflation seem to be complex. I'm willing to believe part of the reason is higher wages, as it does seem that there have been some (fairly minor) real gains over the past several months. But it's also quite clear that the increased oil prices are affecting the prices of goods and services across the board. And I've seen a number of reports of companies posting record profits and raising prices—which indicates that they're not raising prices because they have to, but because "oh, it's inflation, we have no choice" is a convenient cover for them to increase their margins. More importantly, the concern at hand is recessions, not inflation, and the comment I replied to was specifically noting the fact that there had been several significant recessions in recent years. It was the apparent fragility of our economy recently that I was attributing to the drastically increased income inequality, not inflation specifically.
- s1artibartfast 4y ago
  >I've seen a number of reports of companies posting record profits and raising prices—which indicates that they're not raising prices because they have to You are thinking about this only from the profit side. The entire reason this can happen is because customers are willing and capable to pay more. Cost were never limiting the price because companies were making a profit before too! If you are selling steak, you raise your prices until customers stop buying. You don't stop at X profit margin. Prices go up because customers are willing and able to spend more. If you're saying they're using inflation as a cover and lying, I totally agree. But waiting for an excuse isn't what was stopping them before. >More importantly, the concern at hand is recessions, not inflation You can't separate the two. Recession is GDP loss after adjusting for inflation. The U.S. GDP without inflation is still increasing. Without inflation there would be no recession https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GDP https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GDP