i just saw two people have the pupils of their eyes contort into red heart shapes & then they ran into a room together & slammed the door shut the door & sounds of shrieking monkeys & bongos started emanating from the room, does anyone know what this was
The Hidden Link Between Corporate Greed and Inflation
Inflation! Inflation! Everyone’s talking about it, but ignoring one of its biggest causes: corporate concentration.
Now, prices are undeniably rising. In response, the Fed is about to slow the economy — even though we’re still 2 million jobs short of where we were before the pandemic, and millions of American workers won’t get the raises they deserve.
Meanwhile, Republicans haven’t wasted any time hammering Biden and Democratic lawmakers about inflation.
Don’t fall for their fear mongering.
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Everybody’s ignoring the deeper structural reason for price increases: the concentration of the American economy into the hands of a few corporate giants with the power to raise prices.
If the market were actually competitive, corporations would keep their prices as low as possible as they competed for customers.
Even if some of their costs increased, they would do everything they could to avoid passing them on to consumers in the form of higher prices, for fear of losing business to competitors.
But that’s the opposite of what we’re seeing. Corporations are raising prices even as they rake in record profits. Corporate profit margins hit record highs last year. You see, these corporations have so much market power they can raise prices with impunity.
So the underlying problem isn’t inflation per se. It’s a lack of competition. Corporations are using the excuse of inflation to raise prices and make fatter profits.
Take the energy sector.
Only a few entities have access to the land and pipelines that control the oil and gas powering most of the world. They took a hit during the pandemic as most people stayed home. But they are more than making up for it now, limiting supply and ratcheting up prices.
Or look at consumer goods.
In April 2021, Procter & Gamble raised prices on staples like diapers and toilet paper, citing increased costs in raw materials and transportation. But P&G has been making huge profits. After some of its price increases went into effect, it reported an almost 25% profit margin.
Looking to buy your diapers elsewhere? Good luck. The market is dominated by P&G and Kimberly-Clark, which—NOT entirely coincidentally—raised its prices at the same time.
Another example: in April 2021, PepsiCo raised prices, blaming higher costs for ingredients, freight, and labor. It then recorded $3 billion in operating profits through September. How did it get away with this without losing customers?
Pepsi has only one major competitor, Coca-Cola, which promptly raised its own prices. Coca-Cola recorded $10 billion in revenues in the third quarter of 2021, up 16% from the previous year.
Food prices are soaring, but half of that is from meat, which costs 15% more than last year. There are only four major meat processing companies in America, which are all raising their prices and enjoying record profits.
Get the picture?
The underlying problem is not inflation. It’s corporate power. Since the 1980s, when the U.S. government all but abandoned antitrust enforcement, two-thirds of all American industries have become more concentrated.
Most are now dominated by a handful of corporations that coordinate prices and production. This is true of: banks, broadband, pharmaceutical companies, airlines, meatpackers, and yes, soda.
Corporations in all these industries could easily absorb higher costs — including long overdue wage increases — without passing them on to consumers in the form of higher prices. But they aren’t.
Instead, they’re using their massive profits to line the pockets of major investors and executives — while both consumers and workers get shafted.
How can this structural problem be fixed? Fighting corporate concentration with more aggressive antitrust enforcement. And imposing a windfall profits tax on profitable corporations that are using this period of rising costs to gouge consumers.
So don’t fall for the fear mongering about inflation. The real culprit here is corporate power.
I wrote a couple of weeks ago about movie franchises and how they can be awesome if done right or terrible if done wrong. Today I want to expand on that theme and talk about some other trends that studios have been using to try to cash in.
The first trend is the reboot, which has a spotty track record. There are some franchises that have been rebooted with much success and critical acclaim. The ones that jump immediately to mind are The Dark Knight trilogy reboot of the Batman franchise and the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movies. Both of these reboots took well known and well traveled characters and storylines and breathed new life into them which led to commercial and critical success. However, there are plenty of reboots that fail to achieve the success of their predecessors, both at the box office and from the critics.
Things get even more insane when franchises get rebooted multiple times. The Spiderman franchise had some success with Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker and then the reboot did pretty well with Andrew Garfield. Now there are rumors that Spiderman will be rebooted yet again with another new star. James Bond has been re-cast so many times I’ve lost count and, other than the recent Daniel Craig movies, it hasn’t been a boost to the quality or success of the franchise. Hollywood will try to squeeze blood out of a stone and every last dollar out of a potentially lucrative franchise.
The second trend in Hollywood is the remake, which is slightly different than the reboot. A remake is when a well-known film is copied as the framework for another film but many of the settings, characters, and plot points are changed or updated. A recent example of this is the remake of the 1982 classic musical movie Annie, which was (quite unnecessarily) remade in 2014 with a new plot, new characters, and several new songs.
Remakes can sometimes be great. Ocean’s Eleven is a remake of a “rat pack” film from the 60’s and it’s one that I enjoy considerably. The Coen Brothers remake of True Grit is another that I thought was well done and added a new dimension to the John Wayne starring original. But the remakes that match or exceed the original films they are based on are rare, and too often they lose what made the original films so special and loved.
The last trend I’m going to talk about today, and the one that I really can’t stand, is the trend towards increasingly absurd adaptations. It’s not uncommon for TV shows to be adapted to films, and sometimes with a lot of success. Batman was a television show first. 21 Jump Street was a television show first. There would have been no Serenity without the television show Firefly. And of course the wonderful films of the Monty Python comedy troupe would not have been possible without the television success of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. There have been plenty of duds too, but it’s not the worst thing that Hollywood has done.
But the trend is spiraling downward recently with more and more absurd adaptations. Disney turned a relatively popular theme park attraction into the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, which is sadly still continuing long past it’s expiration date. Video games have been adapted into several films, none of which were as good or as popular as the games they were based on. In recent years, sanity has been stretched to the point where board games like Battleship, Monopoly, Candy Land, and the Ouija Board have been adapted into films or are at some point in the development process. I’m just waiting on movie studios to adapt crappy television commercials or cell phone games into movies. It’s going to happen.
It’s hard to generalize and say that reboots, remakes, and adaptations are a good thing or a bad thing. When done with care and craft they can be great to watch and successful financially. However, as I said in part one of my thoughts on movie franchises, I think that the lack of creativity and over-reliance on proven commodities is one of the reasons that people aren’t going to the movies as often. Plus there is more competition for our time and money with the increased quality of television and online entertainment. Angela will have more thoughts on that in the next few days.
One of my friends commented that there seems to be a wealth of huge blockbuster franchises and an explosion of low budget independent films but the “middle class” movies are getting squeezed out. I don’t have exact figures, but my initial reaction is that he’s on to something. I know studio executives want to try to minimize risk and maximize profits by creating films that can be cross-marketed and have a wealth of merchandising opportunities, but the primary reason for making a movie should be because it’s a good movie. When movie studios figure that out, maybe they will see the business grow.
Starbucks is shutting down Kismet, a local Turkish cafe under the claim they serve espresso
Spoilers: they don’t. It’s Turkish coffee.
In the center of Alderwood Mall in Washington, there’s two kiosks.
One is a creation built from the ground up (Literally. They had to install the plumbing and electric themselves.) by a married couple from Turkey. They had a restaurant before immigrating here, and chose to set up shop in a region with a huge middle eastern population. Achma, simit, baklava, Nutella Bomb (Bomb of Izmir remix), börek, and whatever baked goods they’re giving a whip up are worked on as they chat with you. Turkish coffee is brewed and served in beautiful little cups, Italian sodas prepped, and with a baked good of choice enjoyed at the wrap around counter. The place has become a tiny cultural island of familiarity, where friends and families gather to chat, eat and drink.
The other is a duplicate stamp fast food kiosk by a bloated multi-billion dollar corporation that’s already shut down one of its three (3) locations within the mall, leaving yet another unoccupied dead space.
For years, it’s ignored Kismet’s presence while it made the usual hard climb from startup. But it’s gotten popular. And they don’t like it.
And so they walk up to Brookfield Properties who own the mall, and whip out the contract of no one else on the property serving espresso (yes. they have that. insidious isn’t it?) demanding that the Turkish coffee shop close. Here’s the screamer though: They. Don’t. Serve. Espresso. But Brookfield won’t squirm under the thumb of the megacorp unless it’s made loud and clear what a big mistake that is.
If you would like to help, even signing the petition will carry this forward. Reblog and share it too, and let’s see if we can’t give Starbucks a well-earned kick in the groin.
Please give this petition your signature. These kinds of stores are so important and especially because they are immigrants!
Me and this guy like each other but he is also in a poly relationship. I want to date him but i don’t want to have to “share” him if that makes sense. We really like each other though. How do I tell him I don’t want to date him if he is also dating other people?
You can just tell him that: “I really like you, and I would like to date you monogamously, but I don’t want to date you if you are also dating other people.”
Then, he can do what he likes with that information. He may say “then we aren’t compatible - bummer!” or he may say “then I’ll leave my relationship for you!” Either way, you’ll have your answer.
People say this to me all the time - it’s a pretty common situation. It’s very possible that he doesn’t want to leave his polyamorous relationship for you, and that’s his decision to make. It’ll sting, but you’ll live - nearly everyone has been through the pain of liking someone who can’t or won’t date them for any number of reasons.
Best of luck finding someone who wants a monogamous relationship with you, whether it’s this guy or someone else!
