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I was just going to write: >>"because everybody is BROKE?!?!" ...but I didn't want to offend anybody with `whining` [I'm an average net-worth, for my age, US

I was just going to write: >>"because everybody is BROKE?!?!" ...but I didn't want to offend anybody with `whining` [I'm an average net-worth, for my age, US blue collar worker]. ---- Here are my whines of thought: I think the thing many of my brothers (three multi-millionaires, I am not) fail to see at the moment is that the "bottom majority" is having an increasingly "really bad time" existance. Myself, I have zero dependants, and zero desire to reproduce in this world. e.g. I have savings, but no healthcare (why?) and plenty of debt. When I start seeing "struggling majority" grow from simple 51% to increasingly-closer-to "bottom 90%" lately... I start getting really concerned. I don't giveAF about almost anything, but whatever this majority's percentage: they're not wrong (life is getting too difficult for majority). ¢¢

cjbgkagh 1y ago
As inequality grows, regardless of the mechanism, the proportion who benefit will decrease. The top 10% that benefited from the initial increase will find themselves on the wrong side of it as the process continues. I supply a low cost alternative software option so cost pressures on customers tends to improve sales so that helps a bit with recession resistance up to a point. Though more customers are choosing to do without any alternative which means it must be really rough out there as such software is pretty essential to their work. It’s hitting the top end of the market as well, the large staffs and debts mean they have to extract more money from a declining customer base that is less able to pay. It’s bad enough even these big multinationals can’t afford to build new features and are choosing to instead exit various markets to focus on their most profitable products. This will only work short term as the less profitable parts were effectively a loss leader for the profitable ones and shouldn’t really be considered a separate offering. They appear to have entered a terminal decline, and it seems that some of them know this and are gouging on their way out. Multiply this across N industries and it looks like this stagflation / recession is just getting warmed up.
- ProllyInfamous 1y ago
  >more customers are choosing to do without any alternative which means it must be really rough out there Absolutely. Outside of software, here is my simple dietary POV: Last year, I gave up beef (chicken is less expensive). Last spring, I planted my first garden (cucumbers, squash, peppers, strawberries). Last week, I gave up chocolate (no alternative, so far). I am a fat native blue-collar Texan, so this is ultimately a good dietary change — but terrifying for a consumer-based economy / society.

cjbgkagh 1y ago

As inequality grows, regardless of the mechanism, the proportion who benefit will decrease. The top 10% that benefited from the initial increase will find themselves on the wrong side of it as the process continues. I supply a low cost alternative software option so cost pressures on customers tends to improve sales so that helps a bit with recession resistance up to a point. Though more customers are choosing to do without any alternative which means it must be really rough out there as such software is pretty essential to their work. It’s hitting the top end of the market as well, the large staffs and debts mean they have to extract more money from a declining customer base that is less able to pay. It’s bad enough even these big multinationals can’t afford to build new features and are choosing to instead exit various markets to focus on their most profitable products. This will only work short term as the less profitable parts were effectively a loss leader for the profitable ones and shouldn’t really be considered a separate offering. They appear to have entered a terminal decline, and it seems that some of them know this and are gouging on their way out. Multiply this across N industries and it looks like this stagflation / recession is just getting warmed up.

ProllyInfamous 1y ago
>more customers are choosing to do without any alternative which means it must be really rough out there Absolutely. Outside of software, here is my simple dietary POV: Last year, I gave up beef (chicken is less expensive). Last spring, I planted my first garden (cucumbers, squash, peppers, strawberries). Last week, I gave up chocolate (no alternative, so far). I am a fat native blue-collar Texan, so this is ultimately a good dietary change — but terrifying for a consumer-based economy / society.