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BillBrasky Memorial Political Chat Thread

It really was a perfect storm of Covid induced labor shortages globally, flooding in China (wrecked their grain production for multiple years and had massive downstream effects, plus closed many of their inland ports, and then just the over reliance on globalization. The last few years have laid bare that the quest for perfect efficiency in the name of profit puts our supply chain at risk. A very good case can be made that reducing our global supply chain dependency is a national security issue.

The floods in China were the initial bottleneck, and then Covid just hammered everything else and they've been trying to unwind it all ever since. It's not some simple issue that can be flippantly dismissed as propaganda, or simply chalked up to workers being fired.
 
Liquid Karma said:
Have you finally moved on from inflation only being an issue that well off people talk about at the dinner table?

The supply chain issues are very real. You need to think about the very basic inputs that lead to what impacts our everyday lives. Take for example the global nitrogen fertilizer shortage. That leads to an impact on the yield of corn, wheat, etc. That in turn also leads to a shortage on feed needed for livestock. The fertilizer we can source is mostly international, so there is a shipping cost, and then a time cost due to delays. Then the cost to distribute the goods here in the US, which is obviously affected by not only fuel costs but also the cost of labor which has gone up considerably due to a shortage.

I was baking the exorbitant cost of oil and gas into the supply chain driven side of the problem. Those are a basic input into the cost of transportation of goods, along with record shipping, port and drayage costs. You are certainly correct that oil companies are gouging the shit out of us, but they are the exception, not the rule.

And for the record, I would 100% be in favor of the nationalization of the oil industry as well as all utilities and internet infrastructure.
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Another post where you refuse to acknowledge how much of this nationwide/worldwide price inflation is simply opportunistic price gouging. You can talk all day long about the worlds supply chain issues, the fact remains that the stock market has boomed, the rich have gotten richer, and corporations have made larger profits.
 
What are industries you think are engaged in opportunistic price gouging right now?
 
I acknowledged the role oil and gas costs have played. Your assertion that the supply chain stuff was "propaganda" is just laughably ignorant.
 
Political Chat Thread - All Topics & Rants Welcome

Liquid Karma said:
I acknowledged the role oil and gas costs have played. Your assertion that the supply chain stuff was "propaganda" is just laughably ignorant.
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It is propaganda. Stating facts out of context inorder to mislead *is* propaganda. You and I are simply interpreting the same data from opposite political philosophies.
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I'd suggest any company that raised prices after announcing a record profit. I think Starbucks and Amazon belong there. I'm sure there are plenty more.
 
myDeaconmyhand said:
It is propaganda. Stating facts out of context inorder to mislead *is* propaganda. You and I are simply interpreting the same data from opposite political philosophies.
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If it helps you sleep better to blame big bad corporations for why it costs 30% more for people to eat, go for it.
 
Liquid Karma said:
What are industries you think are engaged in opportunistic price gouging right now?
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I want to give you a straightforward answer but I’m not sure how to address your question because I don’t know if you are sincerely unaware of the stock market boom or if you just don’t believe that a booming market indicates broader economic profitability in publicly traded companies and securities.

We could get into a debate of implicating specific industries, but that seems mostly anecdotal and a waste of time. Instead I would ask you - how do you square a supply crisis with increased profits?
 
Shell's operating margin this quarter is 10% and their total margin is 5%. They earned about $3 billion more from $6 to $9 this quarter. So if they magnamiously decided the keep their profit levels the same, they could have reduced retail gas prices by a whopping 3%.
 
Liquid Karma said:
If it helps you sleep better to blame big bad corporations for why it costs 30% more for people to eat, go for it.
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You might really want to reconsider which of the two of us is being naive here. I’m familiar with the concepts of supply and demand, that’s day 1 junior high level economics, it’s just - there’s a lot more to consider than that.
 
there may be a slight difference in how people are understanding the (very polysemous) term "price gouging" here
 
myDeaconmyhand said:
it’s just - there’s a lot more to consider than that.
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Which you have clearly dismissed out of hand because it's more convenient to blame price gouging instead of even attempting to understand a complex system.
 
Do you know who’s price gouging right now? Chickens. Some are refusing to go to Bojangles at all while others are charging more.
 
TenaciousKory said:
there may be a slight difference in how people are understanding the (very polysemous) term "price gouging" here
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I think this is a very good point. And I think ultimately MDMH and I come at the same problem from different sides like he said.

I apologize for being argumentative. I have a pretty strong conviction on how badly the supply chain fucked us but no need to argue so much with one person who has an equally strong and opposite conviction.
 
So help me understand an issue that it seems a vast majority agree upon.
Why has it taken so long for the Senate and House to pass a billionaires tax? It baffles my mind that they can't get that done.
 
DeacsPop said:
So help me understand an issue that it seems a vast majority agree upon.
Why has it taken so long for the Senate and House to pass a billionaires tax? It baffles my mind that they can't get that done.
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oh I don't know maybe because they are funded by them but maybe because there's a virtually unquantifiable lobbying industry that represents the interests of billionaires as well who are constantly interacting with them but maybe because they "worked hard" for their money but maybe because the optics of a tax on anyone is rhetorically fraught but maybe the system is just broken
 
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