Don’t try to tell me my wages are sharply increasing either, because they’re not! Nor are my friends, family, or neighbors.
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Fewer goods are being sold due to shortages and delays in mining, distribution, and production.
So while you spend more per item, on the whole, there are fewer items being produced and sold.
Wages are also absolutely rising, despite you anecdotes
https://apnews.com/article/business-wages-salaries-increase-8ce98ea3bcc14c4810eb5a1111e1df49
Some companies are finding that scarcity works in their favor, and are reaping greater overall profit, but they are hoarding the cash as most are expecting price increases to continue to ripple through supply chains as companies realize what the new costs are. It takes time.
>Don’t try to tell me my wages are sharply increasing either, because they’re not! Nor are my friends, family, or neighbors.
* But they *are* increasing for other people and some of those people are inside the supply chain like at warehouses and trucking companies.
* Example:
* Lots of truckers sat at home in the beginning of the pandemic because people stopped buying so much shit right away.
* Some of those truckers had time to think and realized they didn’t want to be a trucker any more.
* When demand for goods started back up, there is now a shortage of drivers.
* So trucking company has pay more per driver to get drivers.
* That increases delivery costs for things like…food.
* Grocery stores operate on small margins so there isn’t much room to absorb that extra shipping costs, so the prices customers pay increase.
* Most of it, though is just going to the same people is always has.
* They charge you more because they are selling less stuff than usual.
* Example:
* Grocery store normally get a shipment of bananas and strawberries from a distributor and the delivery cost is $X.
* But right now that distributor can’t get bananas because the ports are clogged with 60″ TVs and exercise mats.
* But they can still deliver the strawberries.
* So the grocery store buys the strawberries and still has to the pay $X for the delivery.
* So now they can’t sell you bananas, but they can sell you marked up strawberries to help cover the cost.
* At the same time, rich people are getting richer, and it’s because the increased costs don’t effect them nearly as much and so they still have a ton of money to invest into goods and services that are in high demand during the pandemic.
* So yes there are some people taking advantage of shortages and grabbing profits simply because they can, but I think most of it is the rich folks just being better able to pivot and adapt because again…they are rich.
* Another example of the cost of being poor.
The short, vastly oversimplified but true answer to this question is….to the top 1% of the wealthiest people in America.
> Don’t try to tell me my wages are sharply increasing either, because they’re not! Nor are my friends, family, or neighbors.
Except they are. Well. maybe not *you*, but the statistics show wage increases across the board, and these are expected to increase next year as well. Just because you can’t personally see it doesn’t mean it’s not happening.
Aside from that, everything /u/ZacQuicksilver says below is pretty accurate. The high points are the shipping crisis and the labor shortage along with some of the monetary policies the government’s done for the past few years.
The people who own the companies are keeping it all. US billionaires have gained $1,800,000,000,000 just since the pandemic began. The richest people in the world have seen their wealth absolutely *skyrocket* as the prices of everything you buy increase.
Have you noticed that there have been record profits across nearly all industries in the last two years? That’s where they are going.
Have you noticed that stock and home prices have skyrocketed in the last two years? That’s where they are putting those profits.
They are doing everything they can to avoid putting them back into wages.
Raw materials and logistics. Truckers have the world in their hands, and sellers of industrial/building materials like metals, oils, lumber are getting whatever they want.
So believe it or not, companies that sell/market direct to consumers are actually getting killed with cost increases and are passing them on to keep their profits even. The suppliers & drivers further up the supply chain are the ones that are making out like bandits.
I work for a FTSE 100 and the extra money is going to pay for 2 things: utilities and materials. In food there were multiple harvest failures and/or lower yielding harvest which has increased the scarcity of raw materials. Utilities for consumers has risen fourfold in the UK and so have those costs on the production line that runs 24 hours to produce consumer goods. Businesses are unwilling to decrease their dividend or profits significantly so the cost of the goods rise to support this. Logistics costs will also rise the next time contracts are due.
As others have said it’s all about economics. Supply and demand should be in balance but it’s always subject to outside forces. Now things like taxes and interest rates will be used over the next number of years by the government to try force everything to a normal growth rate ( not out of control inflation). In short, we are talking about 5-10 years before we recover to pre COVID times.
To your Bosses mostly.
We live in a capitalist society, and in such a society a corporation will always attempt to maximize revenue and minimize expenses to ensure maximum profit.
The prices of an hour of your life is baked into their bottom line, and unless you have hard leverage, you will never be able to convince them to cut into their bottom line by paying you a single penny more than they have to on purpose.
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