The response to COVID was the largest upward transfer of wealth in history. Monopolies? No corporate kings.
this post was submitted on 07 Jan 2024
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Yep and they're still making record profits in the gift of "inflation" when it's just permanent price gouging now that they have a publicly accepted excuse. How is it inflation when they're making substantially more revenue year over year?
“Capitalism drives innovation”
I was unemployed before and through most of COVID. I have lost a great deal of fondness for material things. I don't have a lot of opportunities to impress my peers so, "keeping up with the Joneses" is not a high priority.
I can't be the only member of the millennial generation that sees the pursuit of wealth as sisyphean.
Covid slashed a lot of things on the consumer side.
I was just contemplating today about how many things I've purchased, just in the last few months, that have been defective. A pair of shoes, thermostats, blankets, and more. Since December I've had 2 somewhat expensive items where they would send me a replacement because the first item I received was defective, and it turns out the replacement has had the same issue. That's never happened to me before, granted, this is obviously anecdotal.
And at the same time, it seems like they also slashed customer service not that most companies ever excelled at that to begin with. But even places like Amazon, which supposedly had top tier service, have fallen off significantly in that department.
So, here I am, yelling at the clouds, but I do wonder where it all ends.
Consumer choice in my vocabulary means that I can buy the same thing from different companies, so I, and other consumers, have the ability to "vote with our wallet". I don't care how many different colours you offer your thing, I care whether you are abusing a monopolistic market and if you hike prices I am able to buy from people who don't.
Consumer choice was dead before the pandemic, and it wasn't COVID that killed it, but unchecked mergers and acquisitions, and the US' refusal to enforce basic antitrust law, twisting and breaking global markets.