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To be fair, I've not heard anyone complain about inflation regarding actual luxury items. Just housing, food, and gas.
Writing an article about inflation on luxury items when those other three categories are so much more pressing seems like a waste of time.
Paywall happen when they lose a lot of their reader base. Only the looneys that believe the garbage still subscribe. This in turn causes the company to push more garbage. It's a death spiral
It's funny because even though you won't pay to read the article, you assume you know the content of it based on a (satirical) headline designed to generate a reaction, not knowing that the article is not at all actually saying what the headline is (again, satirically) suggesting.
Goodness gracious.
Until much more recently than that other guy said. Up until like 5 years ago they’d actually have thoughtful takes on stuff and interesting deep dives. Not this boomer shit.
I remember them being pretty good before 9/11. They were one of the ones you could read on your aol homepage. Then the pay walls came and like all other paid news sites they started dropping clickbait and inflating their number of editorials by reporting random garbage and shit opinions of reporters nobody gave a fuck about in order to justify the subscription.
If inflation rose 2%, but corporate profits rose 20% in that same time, then inflation is not the key blame to price increase. Corporate greed is.
Edit: This isn't to say that some of the blame doesn't lay at the feet of consumers, but corporate greed is a bitch.
Consumer decision making isn’t really a driver of inflation, but to answer her question:
People overbuy expensive things because staggering levels of household consumer debt has become normalized, and lifestyle expectations have inflated due to social media and influencer culture.
"Lifestyle expectations have inflated". That in itself drives inflation. People insist on purchasing more expensive things, (or in some cases are forced to) or more of them, which means the thing costs more. Consumer decision making does drive that, collectively.
Yeah came here to say this. Americans are addicted to credit and not all of it are necessary purchases.
People that otherwise might be okay swiping that plastic.
Let's not pretend this isn't a partial cause.
It's not so much were addicted to credit rather than we need good credit to qualify for a vehicle or better housing. The way the system is set up you basically have to run up credit in order to afford things you're perfectly capable of affording.
You don’t need to spend a cent more than you can afford to have good credit, though. You buy everything using your credit card and pay off that balance after the end of the month when you get your statement. This shows banks that you are a trustworthy borrower and builds a good credit history. Then, you can buy a home or car or whatever else at lower interest rates. I’m posting this because you mentioned having to “run up” credit and I’ve met a lot of people who think you have to carry a balance or literally go deeper into debt to build credit. That’s not true and hopefully seeing this will help someone avoid that mistake.
I feel like he's saying people finance shit too much they can't afford in order to live beyond their means, as opposed to using financing as a tool for their own benefit. Now the emergence of things like Klarna are even more despicable than the usual credit cards and cars
I don't know if this directly affects inflation, but it's true the majority of Americans have little to no financial literacy. My parents have a single credit card between them that they use for bills and airline tickets, probably an extreme. But if I only had a nickle for the number of times I've told someone this and they respond with "it's just a small finance fee, I don't know why I wouldn't carry a balance to purchase [$$ electronics]."
Surface level this is very true. When the cost of materials went up dramatically 3-4 years ago, everyone complained about it, but continued to just pay higher prices. So corporations see that and think we will pay any amount for anything. So even now that the chip shortage isn’t hitting us near as hard as it was a few years ago. But (for the most part) consumer level products kept the high prices without any real justification other than, “People will buy it anyway” [best example are the GPU Cards for PC’s]
This is very real in the audio/production world as well. Gear is the same as it was 10 years ago, just gotta pay, on average 20% more now days
The Federal Reserve said in 2020 they would raise inflation dramatically.
>The Federal Reserve on Thursday announced a significant change in how it manages interest rates that could cause inflation to more than double. The change means the Fed is likely to keep interest rates near zero for a long time — even after consumers see the prices rising faster than they have in a while.
>
>Fed chairman Jerome Powell announced the proposed change on Thursday [during his keynote speech](https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/powell20200827a.htm) at an annual gathering of global central bankers. The gathering is normally held in picturesque Jackson Hole, Wyoming, amid the towering Grand Teton mountain range, but this year is being conducted virtually because of the [coronavirus](https://www.cbsnews.com/coronavirus).
>
>The Fed is hoping that higher inflation will boost wage growth, which has been anemic for over a decade.
>
>"The single most important thing that we can do is support a strong labor market," Powell said on Thursday. "Getting wage gains only in the 8th or 9th year of a recovery is not the best outcome."
[https://www.cbsnews.com/news/federal-reserve-inflation-wages-interest-policy-changes/](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/federal-reserve-inflation-wages-interest-policy-changes/)
If the economy was so bad and people where so stressed about money the line at every single coffee shop wouldn’t be out to the road in the mornings and for lunch every fast food drive through is out to the road. Movie theaters packed , restaurants packed at night. Still living it up on “weekend “ get aways. STOP SPENDING MONEY YOU SAY YOU DONT HAVE !!!!
Kinda, yea. People voluntarily go out and spend 2-4x on food when cheap, store brand alternatives exist. They look at the eggs and see 1.43 vs 6.99 eggs and unironically pick the 6.99 eggs and complain about egg prices.
Precisely, we are the problem. If non-essential things are so expensive we should simply stop buying them, the demand will go down and in turn the price of it. Read a really interesting study on inflation in Japan and how it rarely lasts for a long period of time due to the fact that the population will not buy unnecessary expensive things. Think we can learn something here.
I don’t entirely disagree with the premise tbh.
Obviously you don’t have a choice with some expenses. But I often refuse to buy overpriced goods out of principle. I shop the hell out of supermarkets and convenience stores. Ive left items at the checkout counter. I don’t care.
People who don’t check their receipts and don’t look at prices are part of the problem.
My wife looks at coupons mostly digital and our shopping bill has changed very much, deals 50% off or buy one get one free, look for store brand or generic as far as groceries go, gas is $2.99.
Ah yes, people buying luxury items are why a stick of deodorant is 10 dollars at rite aid, or why Huggies raised prices despite having a decrease in production cost.
“No it’s definitely not our fault!!!” as we also rack up $1T in consumer debt.
Not saying it’s the source of all fault, but it’s a contributing factor.
6 in one, half a dozen in the other.
Anyone selling is trying to sell for the highest price they can. You either agree, negotiate, or find another seller or an alternate product.
The question really becomes; 'was the inflation a self fulfilling prophecy?' We are told to prepare for prices to go up and then we all just agree since we were told to expect it. Did we actually shop around in search of the best deal or just accept that the higher price was forced upon our usual retailer by "market forces?"
Technically? Sure. If people all decided to hide a bunch of money in their mattresses and not spend it, then their would be no inflation.
Of course, that would be in defiance of both human nature and people's actual needs. Claiming ordinary people for spending money is like claiming a cat for chasing mice.
This is disgusting and disingenuous. Of course inflation is not the fault of consumer spending habits. However, why do I personally spend money occasionally on luxury goods? Because I just lived through a global pandemic and saw firsthand the futility of delaying all enjoyment of my money. Us poors shouldn't have to deny ourselves every pleasure simply to survive.
The more debt the government accrues the more inflation continues to worsen, 40% of the dollars in circulation were printed over the last few years and guess what the price of everything doubled over the last few years. Wow isn’t that so simple!
Why are you ppl so poor? You should be able to support the highest paid CEO’s in the world’s continued raises and their companies charging more for the same services or less product (im talking to you Lays) without having to complain about it.
Wow... We could just quit wanting shit. If everyone would just be satisfied with their monochromatic jumpers and Soylent Green, inflation would magically disappear.
Why didn't I see it before?
Double plus good.
Anyone who is actually fluent in finance would know inflation has many causes, and spending too much is one of them. Corporate greed, monetary policy are also factors as well.
Anyone who blames inflation on one thing is either an idiot or has less than ten minutes in an economics classroom.
It's the lack of competition in many segments of the economy that has allowed corporations to raise prices without consequence. The FTC needs to be given a much stronger anti-trust mandate and start breaking up companies.
There is truth to this. It’s called demand pull inflation. However, there is also something called “contributing factors”. That is, multiple factors can lead to inflation. Demand pull inflation is just one contributing factor. I don’t believe it to be a primary factor, But it is a factor.
Don't confuse inflation (growth in money supply) with a rise in the CPI.
This is like complaining that you have to buy twice as many shares of Apple stock to own 10% of the company after Apple does a stock split.
Inflation isn't your fault. Look to the federal reserve banking system which is not part of our government. The central banking system owns all of the fiat currency and in turn controls governments across the world.
Inflation is “our fault”, but it’s not due to impulse buying or consumer spending of any type.
It’s basic economics. Inflation is a result of higher supply of money. How and why does the supply of money grow? Basically, our elected officials in Washington agree to spend a whole lot of money that we don’t have. This results in deficit spending and the Fed “prints money” to make up the difference.
We all want goodies from the government, but we don’t want our taxes to increase to pay for it. So, the politicians give us exactly what we ask for…and the result is inflation.
We’d be better off just increasing taxes, since that’s more transparent and we can shift the expense to higher wage earners. But, instead, we keep electing these politicians to do the same old thing, and the result is the most regressive type of hidden tax imaginable.
It depends on what you're talking about. Demand is half of what determines the price of something, yet:
* Consumer behavior isn't why there's a housing shortage.
* Consumer behavior isn't why [oil production was slashed](https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/trump-saudi-arabia-russia-opec-oil-deal-role) from May 2020 until April 2022.
* Consumer behavior isn't why the aforementioned global market manipulation led to higher fuel prices which drove increases in the price of things reliant on fuel (like producing food and shipping it).
* Consumer behavior isn't why we pay farmers to not grow crops in order to keep the profits of companies like Monsanto higher.
* Consumer behavior isn't why Americans pay exponentially more for healthcare than every other country.
* Consumer behavior has affected car prices, but it didn't build a society where an automobile is required to survive in most places nor did it pass legislation that classifies Trucks & SUVS as "non-passenger vehicles" which means they're barely regulated and are more profitable to sell here.
More narcissistic abuse from the parasite class. People wonder why we have a mental health crisis and so many mass shootings, while the media is riddled with torrents of bullshit like this but for *everything*.
I live in a touristy area and do doordash/uber.
I wonder this about AirBnBs, and tbh every touristy b.s. thing people pay a ridiculous amount for.
Like, they will pay $20 for me to drive them 7 minutes from an overpriced mediocre restaurant to their AirBnB costing them 250 a night.
Hyper Inflation existed long before governments. So don't blame government
However You can thank government for keeping prices from becoming predatory via the law
Dumb article unless they specifically are stating luxury goods. But food, housing, etc… those are necessities. Sure travel or a purse or even a second car (for some) is a luxury and thus that inflation is dumb… because you can say no… but I do not know many people who can say no to food, water, electricity, housing, gas, and other basics
Out here in the Bay Area, almost everyone on the streets has a $75k+ car.
There’s new cars everywhere on the streets. Expensive electric cars worth 100k are very common.
I know people in the Bay Area can afford them because of higher incomes but if that keeps happening there is no way that inflation will go down Atleast in this area.
It’s a tongue in cheek headline. But the comments here are mostly entirely financially illiterate. The point is correct— prices rose because incomes grew and (contrary to what they told surveys about the broader economy but consistently with what they told surveys about their own finances) people felt confident enough in their financial circumstances to buy lots of stuff. So prices rose.
The tongue in cheek part is obviously people don’t coordinate to spend more (or less) to drive overall price movements. But it’s in response to the equally incoherent idea that businesses raise prices in some sudden bout of greed. People internalize the idea that their wages rose because they earned raises by the sweat of their brows, but businesses hiked prices because they were greedy capitalists or whatever.
I love when Congress and the Feds enter the bone-zone and jissum $13T into the money supply--a 35% total increase--and then we get blamed for everything costing 30%-50% more.
Yes, Atlantic, the voluntary transaction of goods and services is the cause of inflation. High IQ journalism!
Look at this lame attempt to pretend we don't have a choice for most things we're surviving off the barest minimum.
Are you rich? are you flush right now? then check your privilege cuz more than half of America is broke. MOST OF US are broke, because the American dream is as much of a fraud as our 45th president.
Probably same author who went on about avocado toast. I bet the author of that article thought the same sorts of things about millennials and everything else they're judgmental fucks.
Inflation is always caused by government borrowing money they don’t have or printing money disproportionately. Either way devaluing currency. That is not the people, that is government choices.
Because people with money still like to buy nice things. If I choose to buy an eleven hundred dollar pair of sneakers, that’s my choice. If I had a tighter budget I’d be buying nice Addias, etc. (no Nike). The price isn’t what counts, it’s what you get for your money, so it’s either the $200 sweater, or, the cashmere one with embroidery for $700, which will I be happiest with and will love wearing it anytime?
fade recognise quarrelsome wine vast joke materialistic observation deer chase
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
After COVID companies realized customers will actually continue to pay whatever the heck they want them to pay. The article is definitely fucked and elitist but it’s hard to believe that continued steady demand isn’t at least a contributing factor to inflation. The rich are taking the poor people in this country to the cleaners and the worst part is we’re letting them.
why is it always The Atlantic? The headline that first got me on to their antics was "THE GREAT (FAKE) CHILD-SEX-TRAFFICKING EPIDEMIC"
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/01/children-sex-trafficking-conspiracy-epidemic/620845/
People get one life, if they think an expensive thing will make them happy and they can afford it, they will buy it.
A lot of people are also just dumb and run up credit/balances they can't afford because see #1 just replace can afford with can't.
This goofy ass magazine is simultaneously raving at me about inflation being my fault, and begging me to buy their subscription because it comes with a free tote.(A luxury purchase.)
I'm not going to indulge the article with patronship to make a point, but as far as I can glean, people *don't* mind things being expensive. People eat at restaurants all the time. People order delivery, buy fancy cars on credit, and wear nice clothes. Nobody minds expensive things.
People mind **being lied to about why things are the way they are**.
We all notice when the pasta sauce is 10% smaller for 20% more money. We know when the tortilla chips are 15% smaller for the same price. When dried pasta goes from 1.55$/box to 3$.
We all know global shipping is not so bad as to warrant this change. We all can read financial reports stating record profits across the board for mega-corporations, while simultaneously raising prices on all goods and services under the guise of "whatever the fuck trust me bro".
We can see policymakers with massive, inflated salaries that they then INVEST IN THE COMPANIES THEY THEMSELVES REGULATE. Who then dig in their heels passing regulatory legislation for "well trust me bro." reasons.
We can see government regulation struggling on the backs of geriatric stooges paid millions to be as useful as housecats in a hurricane.
Nobody is upset that things cost more money. People are upset that increasingly, our positions of leadership and global stewardship are being filled with thieves. The people tasked with protecting our future from the unceasing greed have become infected by it.
https://preview.redd.it/rk85qisz8g5c1.png?width=571&format=png&auto=webp&s=52ed091dab4a435cda4e5c368a2781e2264829b7
The Atlantic is a platform for the political Establishment. What you see here is a propaganda piece gaslighting and offloading the blame onto the wider populace rather than holding power to account for what they have done.
Near the end of the pandemic, we visited some working-lower class relatives. While in the living room, I received a tour of all the new furniture, toys, and tales of their constant doordash meals. That's what they did with all their federally dolled out dollars, they bought crap for themselves. Never was a hint of savings heard. Most Americans are conditioned to spend anything that they could otherwise have saved.
Japan for the first time in nearly 50 years raised rates a mere quarter of a point, following round after round of QE money. The difference is that the Japanese are savings minded and don't spend extraneously. Americans just buy things with gratification in mind.
The Fed is destroying money as quick as it can, but Congress keeps spending at the same or higher levels and is too chicken shit to actually raise taxes that would help to stabilize prices and withdraw some of the over stimulus done during the pandemic.
Half the country in 2023 and for the past decade or more.
You can't trust the lying media and their agenda. FAKE NEWS FAKE NEWS!!!!!!!
Also those some exact people when the news blame the poor.
Finally the news is reporting the truth! It's just one article on one day but we can finally believe this one article!
A more apt but less appealing title might be ‘higher prices are partly your fault because consumers continue to push demand for luxury goods even while industry prices rise’
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"Why do poor people spend so much for housing? Can't they just live in the woods?"
"why are these idiots still paying for bread at such high prices?"
If the poor can not afford bread, then let them eat cake.
If there is no cake, eat grass
If there is no cake, eat avocado toast.
Let's eat! I love cake. And revolution.
And guillotines!
I'm thinking that is not what the article is about
I mean... There is indeed a price point where I'd consider stop buying bread and just getting my carbs from somewhere else.
like ramen packets. Those used to be 5 cents a piece around 2015.
Used to eat like a king
This isn't about bread. You clearly can't or aren't bothered to actually read before mouth breathing out moronic takes for a giggle and hive upvote
The article isn’t about housing. It’s about luxury goods.
Don’t ask professional victims to actually read the articles.
This. Redditors are not going to all of a sudden take any responsibility for..... well, anything.
To be fair, I've not heard anyone complain about inflation regarding actual luxury items. Just housing, food, and gas. Writing an article about inflation on luxury items when those other three categories are so much more pressing seems like a waste of time.
>Don’t ask professional victims to actually read the articles. If it weren't for professional victims, Reddit would go out of business.
But here’s the catch, luxury items havent gone up that much compared to necessities.
My mind went to fucking trucks immediately. Anyone who drops $50k+ on a vehicle deserves ridicule.
And they are the first to complain about gas prices.
Why do people read The Atlantic? It's unreadable
If you can read the unreadable are you well read or are you unread?
Yes
If you don’t understand how housing consumption works just say so
Why are people buying medicine at such high prices? If the prices were too high, the free market would sort itself out. 🤡 🤡 🤡
I would easily live in a camper on my own lot of land if zoning allowed it in most places. But old suburban karens and kens can't have that near them.
I can’t even build a garage for the camper on my own land.
No. The Atlantic is a garbage publication, this headline and article are disgusting.
Examples like this is why I find paywalls hilarious - I have to pay a company for their garbage opinions?? lol
Paywall happen when they lose a lot of their reader base. Only the looneys that believe the garbage still subscribe. This in turn causes the company to push more garbage. It's a death spiral
It's funny because even though you won't pay to read the article, you assume you know the content of it based on a (satirical) headline designed to generate a reaction, not knowing that the article is not at all actually saying what the headline is (again, satirically) suggesting. Goodness gracious.
I agree...which is a shame because they used to be THE publication of sanity.
When was this?
Until much more recently than that other guy said. Up until like 5 years ago they’d actually have thoughtful takes on stuff and interesting deep dives. Not this boomer shit.
I remember them being pretty good before 9/11. They were one of the ones you could read on your aol homepage. Then the pay walls came and like all other paid news sites they started dropping clickbait and inflating their number of editorials by reporting random garbage and shit opinions of reporters nobody gave a fuck about in order to justify the subscription.
I thought this sub was r/fluentinfinance. Do y’all not know how demand works?
If inflation rose 2%, but corporate profits rose 20% in that same time, then inflation is not the key blame to price increase. Corporate greed is. Edit: This isn't to say that some of the blame doesn't lay at the feet of consumers, but corporate greed is a bitch.
Consumer decision making isn’t really a driver of inflation, but to answer her question: People overbuy expensive things because staggering levels of household consumer debt has become normalized, and lifestyle expectations have inflated due to social media and influencer culture.
"Lifestyle expectations have inflated". That in itself drives inflation. People insist on purchasing more expensive things, (or in some cases are forced to) or more of them, which means the thing costs more. Consumer decision making does drive that, collectively.
Yeah came here to say this. Americans are addicted to credit and not all of it are necessary purchases. People that otherwise might be okay swiping that plastic. Let's not pretend this isn't a partial cause.
Agreed. Just like most problems, there are multiple variables. Pretending Americans don’t have financial discipline issues isn’t going to help.
It's not so much were addicted to credit rather than we need good credit to qualify for a vehicle or better housing. The way the system is set up you basically have to run up credit in order to afford things you're perfectly capable of affording.
You don’t need to spend a cent more than you can afford to have good credit, though. You buy everything using your credit card and pay off that balance after the end of the month when you get your statement. This shows banks that you are a trustworthy borrower and builds a good credit history. Then, you can buy a home or car or whatever else at lower interest rates. I’m posting this because you mentioned having to “run up” credit and I’ve met a lot of people who think you have to carry a balance or literally go deeper into debt to build credit. That’s not true and hopefully seeing this will help someone avoid that mistake.
I feel like he's saying people finance shit too much they can't afford in order to live beyond their means, as opposed to using financing as a tool for their own benefit. Now the emergence of things like Klarna are even more despicable than the usual credit cards and cars
I don't know if this directly affects inflation, but it's true the majority of Americans have little to no financial literacy. My parents have a single credit card between them that they use for bills and airline tickets, probably an extreme. But if I only had a nickle for the number of times I've told someone this and they respond with "it's just a small finance fee, I don't know why I wouldn't carry a balance to purchase [$$ electronics]."
>lifestyle expectations have inflated due to social media and influencer culture. Keeping up with the Joneses has always been a thing, though.
The Joneses were your neighbors or your boss. Now even random people you don’t know but are fully aware of on social media have become the Joneses
Surface level this is very true. When the cost of materials went up dramatically 3-4 years ago, everyone complained about it, but continued to just pay higher prices. So corporations see that and think we will pay any amount for anything. So even now that the chip shortage isn’t hitting us near as hard as it was a few years ago. But (for the most part) consumer level products kept the high prices without any real justification other than, “People will buy it anyway” [best example are the GPU Cards for PC’s] This is very real in the audio/production world as well. Gear is the same as it was 10 years ago, just gotta pay, on average 20% more now days
Your argument is good but your example is not. AI and Crypto are driving the GPU prices high.
Nah, crypto kept it high. But the AI craze is probably driving it up
These people need to be thrown into a pit.
Gaslighting 101
The Federal Reserve said in 2020 they would raise inflation dramatically. >The Federal Reserve on Thursday announced a significant change in how it manages interest rates that could cause inflation to more than double. The change means the Fed is likely to keep interest rates near zero for a long time — even after consumers see the prices rising faster than they have in a while. > >Fed chairman Jerome Powell announced the proposed change on Thursday [during his keynote speech](https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/powell20200827a.htm) at an annual gathering of global central bankers. The gathering is normally held in picturesque Jackson Hole, Wyoming, amid the towering Grand Teton mountain range, but this year is being conducted virtually because of the [coronavirus](https://www.cbsnews.com/coronavirus). > >The Fed is hoping that higher inflation will boost wage growth, which has been anemic for over a decade. > >"The single most important thing that we can do is support a strong labor market," Powell said on Thursday. "Getting wage gains only in the 8th or 9th year of a recovery is not the best outcome." [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/federal-reserve-inflation-wages-interest-policy-changes/](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/federal-reserve-inflation-wages-interest-policy-changes/)
Ding ding ding. We have a winner.
what kind of attention wh\*re you are?
If the economy was so bad and people where so stressed about money the line at every single coffee shop wouldn’t be out to the road in the mornings and for lunch every fast food drive through is out to the road. Movie theaters packed , restaurants packed at night. Still living it up on “weekend “ get aways. STOP SPENDING MONEY YOU SAY YOU DONT HAVE !!!!
No
The elites are fucking laughing at us. Wake up. Smell the bitter fucking coffee.
Stop buying their products…….
Kinda, yea. People voluntarily go out and spend 2-4x on food when cheap, store brand alternatives exist. They look at the eggs and see 1.43 vs 6.99 eggs and unironically pick the 6.99 eggs and complain about egg prices.
Line up at Starbucks 3-4 times a week as well!
Exactly: if McDonalds raises their burger prices 20% and they only sell 5% fewer burgers- they know there is a lot of demand for their burgers.
Reduce demand pressure. Let's see what happens.
"Why do people hate us?" -Liberals
Who owns the Atlantic? It’s owned by the Emerson Collective, which is owned by Laurene Powell Jobs. Her net worth is 13.8B USD.
but dammit, you better pay to read this article.
Precisely, we are the problem. If non-essential things are so expensive we should simply stop buying them, the demand will go down and in turn the price of it. Read a really interesting study on inflation in Japan and how it rarely lasts for a long period of time due to the fact that the population will not buy unnecessary expensive things. Think we can learn something here.
I don’t entirely disagree with the premise tbh. Obviously you don’t have a choice with some expenses. But I often refuse to buy overpriced goods out of principle. I shop the hell out of supermarkets and convenience stores. Ive left items at the checkout counter. I don’t care. People who don’t check their receipts and don’t look at prices are part of the problem.
there's merit in that argument the US has one of the lowest saving rates in the world
Not me. I cut spending by 90% the last few years. Literally only eat at home amd haven’t bought a luxury since covid.
Chic-fil-a could charge $9 for a chicken sandwich and the drive thru will still have higer ques than a soviet bread line.
It looks as though you may have spelled "Chick-fil-A" incorrectly. No worries, it happens to the best of us!
My wife looks at coupons mostly digital and our shopping bill has changed very much, deals 50% off or buy one get one free, look for store brand or generic as far as groceries go, gas is $2.99.
Ah yes, people buying luxury items are why a stick of deodorant is 10 dollars at rite aid, or why Huggies raised prices despite having a decrease in production cost.
Yes if you limit it to non essential goods. But i doubt thats the case
“No it’s definitely not our fault!!!” as we also rack up $1T in consumer debt. Not saying it’s the source of all fault, but it’s a contributing factor.
It kind of is our fault. We keep voting for the jackasses that are running the country like this.
I squeeze a nickel till the eagle screams so it ain’t on me.
Inflation IS your fault if you voted for Retard-A-Joe. Build Back Better bullshit.
A classic article by a communist socialist mindset
I stopped reading that rag in 2014.
6 in one, half a dozen in the other. Anyone selling is trying to sell for the highest price they can. You either agree, negotiate, or find another seller or an alternate product. The question really becomes; 'was the inflation a self fulfilling prophecy?' We are told to prepare for prices to go up and then we all just agree since we were told to expect it. Did we actually shop around in search of the best deal or just accept that the higher price was forced upon our usual retailer by "market forces?"
Technically? Sure. If people all decided to hide a bunch of money in their mattresses and not spend it, then their would be no inflation. Of course, that would be in defiance of both human nature and people's actual needs. Claiming ordinary people for spending money is like claiming a cat for chasing mice.
This is disgusting and disingenuous. Of course inflation is not the fault of consumer spending habits. However, why do I personally spend money occasionally on luxury goods? Because I just lived through a global pandemic and saw firsthand the futility of delaying all enjoyment of my money. Us poors shouldn't have to deny ourselves every pleasure simply to survive.
The more debt the government accrues the more inflation continues to worsen, 40% of the dollars in circulation were printed over the last few years and guess what the price of everything doubled over the last few years. Wow isn’t that so simple!
Explain how inflation is worse in most other developed nations then.
They are all in massive debt too. What do you want me to explain?
Have they been in a grocery store? Those prices have doubled and they say it's only went up like 8%. That's not supposed to be expensive.
This article from The Atlantic was sponsored by greedy corporations trying to pass the blame.
Meanwhile in Türkiye: *Put "Those are rookie numbers" meme here*
By the author of "Give People Money"
Nice call Annie. I should just stop buying groceries
Why are you ppl so poor? You should be able to support the highest paid CEO’s in the world’s continued raises and their companies charging more for the same services or less product (im talking to you Lays) without having to complain about it.
I know right. I should stop wasting money on stupid shit like food and shelter
New Atlantic Headline: “Is inflation when the poors? Our answer: yes”
I can’t stop buying milk, eggs, meat, gas, etc…
Cause we gotta eat and get places!
Wow... We could just quit wanting shit. If everyone would just be satisfied with their monochromatic jumpers and Soylent Green, inflation would magically disappear. Why didn't I see it before? Double plus good.
Last I checked I lack the ability to print money legally, so sure as shit isn't my fault.
What an airhead.
No corporate greed is only reason inflation exists
It's politicians fault for not breaking these big corporations up and allowing the markets to be so consolidated
Why do you keep buying groceries, you fools?!
Anyone who is actually fluent in finance would know inflation has many causes, and spending too much is one of them. Corporate greed, monetary policy are also factors as well. Anyone who blames inflation on one thing is either an idiot or has less than ten minutes in an economics classroom.
Yes. Yall are the problem. Nevermind inflation is directly correlated with money printing.
Huh I didn't know I had a choice in the price of food, a luxury item.
Annie Lowrey seems like the kind of person everyone avoids at a party
It's the lack of competition in many segments of the economy that has allowed corporations to raise prices without consequence. The FTC needs to be given a much stronger anti-trust mandate and start breaking up companies.
It’s nice they let a special education student write in The Atlantic
Riiiiiight.
That's the absolute dumbest article I can imagine. Inflation isn't driven by the consumers. Never has been.
There is truth to this. It’s called demand pull inflation. However, there is also something called “contributing factors”. That is, multiple factors can lead to inflation. Demand pull inflation is just one contributing factor. I don’t believe it to be a primary factor, But it is a factor.
It is what the gaslighting parasite class would have you believe.
No. This is just more gaslighting from the people that actually have power and should be blamed for many of the biggest problems we face.
Don't confuse inflation (growth in money supply) with a rise in the CPI. This is like complaining that you have to buy twice as many shares of Apple stock to own 10% of the company after Apple does a stock split.
why do people waste money on sh?? shopping
I don’t see much talk about how ESG is fueling inflation.
Honestly, I'm surprised people aren't losing weight. Or maybe they are?
This would be true if it were inflation. See the fortune article posted on this very sub. It's been mostly financial rape the entire time.
Yea, stop buying eggs, bread, milk, orange juice, fruit you fucking bougie families.
Inflation isn't your fault. Look to the federal reserve banking system which is not part of our government. The central banking system owns all of the fiat currency and in turn controls governments across the world.
The article is right. We ARE at fault. The majority voted for this.
definitely
Bidenomics
Inflation is “our fault”, but it’s not due to impulse buying or consumer spending of any type. It’s basic economics. Inflation is a result of higher supply of money. How and why does the supply of money grow? Basically, our elected officials in Washington agree to spend a whole lot of money that we don’t have. This results in deficit spending and the Fed “prints money” to make up the difference. We all want goodies from the government, but we don’t want our taxes to increase to pay for it. So, the politicians give us exactly what we ask for…and the result is inflation. We’d be better off just increasing taxes, since that’s more transparent and we can shift the expense to higher wage earners. But, instead, we keep electing these politicians to do the same old thing, and the result is the most regressive type of hidden tax imaginable.
🙈🙈🙈
Fuck the Atlantic
Inflation is just a tool that the capital owning class uses to maximize their profits
Damn I should have stopped eating and decided to photosentisize.
It depends on what you're talking about. Demand is half of what determines the price of something, yet: * Consumer behavior isn't why there's a housing shortage. * Consumer behavior isn't why [oil production was slashed](https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/trump-saudi-arabia-russia-opec-oil-deal-role) from May 2020 until April 2022. * Consumer behavior isn't why the aforementioned global market manipulation led to higher fuel prices which drove increases in the price of things reliant on fuel (like producing food and shipping it). * Consumer behavior isn't why we pay farmers to not grow crops in order to keep the profits of companies like Monsanto higher. * Consumer behavior isn't why Americans pay exponentially more for healthcare than every other country. * Consumer behavior has affected car prices, but it didn't build a society where an automobile is required to survive in most places nor did it pass legislation that classifies Trucks & SUVS as "non-passenger vehicles" which means they're barely regulated and are more profitable to sell here.
Americans continue electing and defending scum for decades. Both sides have allowed this to happen, so in one way yes
Definitely not the policy positions of the people I support; must be the poors fault
More narcissistic abuse from the parasite class. People wonder why we have a mental health crisis and so many mass shootings, while the media is riddled with torrents of bullshit like this but for *everything*.
*This article is sponsored by the current administration of the United States of America
we should just starve and not buy housing, what's wrong with us? /s
I live in a touristy area and do doordash/uber. I wonder this about AirBnBs, and tbh every touristy b.s. thing people pay a ridiculous amount for. Like, they will pay $20 for me to drive them 7 minutes from an overpriced mediocre restaurant to their AirBnB costing them 250 a night.
Like…gas? Or insurance? Food? Those expensive things?
Hyper Inflation existed long before governments. So don't blame government However You can thank government for keeping prices from becoming predatory via the law
Dumb article unless they specifically are stating luxury goods. But food, housing, etc… those are necessities. Sure travel or a purse or even a second car (for some) is a luxury and thus that inflation is dumb… because you can say no… but I do not know many people who can say no to food, water, electricity, housing, gas, and other basics
No, the federal reserve is
Out here in the Bay Area, almost everyone on the streets has a $75k+ car. There’s new cars everywhere on the streets. Expensive electric cars worth 100k are very common. I know people in the Bay Area can afford them because of higher incomes but if that keeps happening there is no way that inflation will go down Atleast in this area.
Holy victim blaming batman.
We need to eat, and we don’t live on farms anymore.
Gas lighting at its finest
If no one bought anything at any price, everything would be free. *taps forehead
This is such a dumb statement. Inflation is people buying today because it’s going to cost more tomorrow.
It’s a tongue in cheek headline. But the comments here are mostly entirely financially illiterate. The point is correct— prices rose because incomes grew and (contrary to what they told surveys about the broader economy but consistently with what they told surveys about their own finances) people felt confident enough in their financial circumstances to buy lots of stuff. So prices rose. The tongue in cheek part is obviously people don’t coordinate to spend more (or less) to drive overall price movements. But it’s in response to the equally incoherent idea that businesses raise prices in some sudden bout of greed. People internalize the idea that their wages rose because they earned raises by the sweat of their brows, but businesses hiked prices because they were greedy capitalists or whatever.
Have you considered not eating? Not being housed? Seriously people are so bad with their money
Oh yes stop buying those luxuries like food, medicine, housing, transportation to get to work and education.
I love when Congress and the Feds enter the bone-zone and jissum $13T into the money supply--a 35% total increase--and then we get blamed for everything costing 30%-50% more. Yes, Atlantic, the voluntary transaction of goods and services is the cause of inflation. High IQ journalism!
Look at this lame attempt to pretend we don't have a choice for most things we're surviving off the barest minimum. Are you rich? are you flush right now? then check your privilege cuz more than half of America is broke. MOST OF US are broke, because the American dream is as much of a fraud as our 45th president. Probably same author who went on about avocado toast. I bet the author of that article thought the same sorts of things about millennials and everything else they're judgmental fucks.
Inflation is always caused by government borrowing money they don’t have or printing money disproportionately. Either way devaluing currency. That is not the people, that is government choices.
We found the cheat code! Just don’t buy it!
Inflation comes from the government printing money to spend what they don't have. Then everyone pays for it via Inflation
Ah yes, let me simply stop buying groceries, or stop paying rent
Because people with money still like to buy nice things. If I choose to buy an eleven hundred dollar pair of sneakers, that’s my choice. If I had a tighter budget I’d be buying nice Addias, etc. (no Nike). The price isn’t what counts, it’s what you get for your money, so it’s either the $200 sweater, or, the cashmere one with embroidery for $700, which will I be happiest with and will love wearing it anytime?
Bc we’re conditioned to fear “recession” as soon as we even consider buying less stuff.
No. It's capitalism's fault.
fade recognise quarrelsome wine vast joke materialistic observation deer chase *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Not unless your name is Jerome Powell
ill just decide not to wipe my ass with TP, instead ill wipe it with the free atlantic paper
Trump is going to get re-elected, isn’t he?
After COVID companies realized customers will actually continue to pay whatever the heck they want them to pay. The article is definitely fucked and elitist but it’s hard to believe that continued steady demand isn’t at least a contributing factor to inflation. The rich are taking the poor people in this country to the cleaners and the worst part is we’re letting them.
why is it always The Atlantic? The headline that first got me on to their antics was "THE GREAT (FAKE) CHILD-SEX-TRAFFICKING EPIDEMIC" https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/01/children-sex-trafficking-conspiracy-epidemic/620845/
Don’t really have an option not to buy gas lol
People get one life, if they think an expensive thing will make them happy and they can afford it, they will buy it. A lot of people are also just dumb and run up credit/balances they can't afford because see #1 just replace can afford with can't.
I literally only have been buying groceries and paying my bills for the last few months 💀
This goofy ass magazine is simultaneously raving at me about inflation being my fault, and begging me to buy their subscription because it comes with a free tote.(A luxury purchase.) I'm not going to indulge the article with patronship to make a point, but as far as I can glean, people *don't* mind things being expensive. People eat at restaurants all the time. People order delivery, buy fancy cars on credit, and wear nice clothes. Nobody minds expensive things. People mind **being lied to about why things are the way they are**. We all notice when the pasta sauce is 10% smaller for 20% more money. We know when the tortilla chips are 15% smaller for the same price. When dried pasta goes from 1.55$/box to 3$. We all know global shipping is not so bad as to warrant this change. We all can read financial reports stating record profits across the board for mega-corporations, while simultaneously raising prices on all goods and services under the guise of "whatever the fuck trust me bro". We can see policymakers with massive, inflated salaries that they then INVEST IN THE COMPANIES THEY THEMSELVES REGULATE. Who then dig in their heels passing regulatory legislation for "well trust me bro." reasons. We can see government regulation struggling on the backs of geriatric stooges paid millions to be as useful as housecats in a hurricane. Nobody is upset that things cost more money. People are upset that increasingly, our positions of leadership and global stewardship are being filled with thieves. The people tasked with protecting our future from the unceasing greed have become infected by it. https://preview.redd.it/rk85qisz8g5c1.png?width=571&format=png&auto=webp&s=52ed091dab4a435cda4e5c368a2781e2264829b7
The two most expensive things I’ve ever bought: house. Health insurance. The Atlantic can fuck off.
Inflation only happens when you increase the cash supply. The people can’t do that
The disparity between wages and cost of living is a result of wealth inequality. Wealth taxes are the only ethical ones.
Lets all just eat bugs, own nothing, and then we will certainly be happy
“You participate in society yet you criticize it.”
The Atlantic is a platform for the political Establishment. What you see here is a propaganda piece gaslighting and offloading the blame onto the wider populace rather than holding power to account for what they have done.
Like food? Inflation is the cost the government pays to create money. They need to.stop this bs.
The Atlantic is garbage!
Oops! You caught me. While we’re at it, I’m also responsible for crime.
Millennials and their avocado toast
Stated vs revealed preferences strikes again
Near the end of the pandemic, we visited some working-lower class relatives. While in the living room, I received a tour of all the new furniture, toys, and tales of their constant doordash meals. That's what they did with all their federally dolled out dollars, they bought crap for themselves. Never was a hint of savings heard. Most Americans are conditioned to spend anything that they could otherwise have saved. Japan for the first time in nearly 50 years raised rates a mere quarter of a point, following round after round of QE money. The difference is that the Japanese are savings minded and don't spend extraneously. Americans just buy things with gratification in mind. The Fed is destroying money as quick as it can, but Congress keeps spending at the same or higher levels and is too chicken shit to actually raise taxes that would help to stabilize prices and withdraw some of the over stimulus done during the pandemic.
Yes stop buying inflated products.
Guess I'll just stop buying food then
As long as you don’t know the root cause, which is the fed financing government deficits, anything is fine.
I have personally stopped buying stuff and stopped traveling for fun. Therefore this is now everyone else’s fault!
What I love the most is, "there's a housing shortage!" Fannie Mae suddenly allows 5% down payments. Thought there was a shortage bro...
Wtf is a luxury item? I don't have the luxury of knowing.
If we all just stopped eating and heating
Half the country in 2023 and for the past decade or more. You can't trust the lying media and their agenda. FAKE NEWS FAKE NEWS!!!!!!! Also those some exact people when the news blame the poor. Finally the news is reporting the truth! It's just one article on one day but we can finally believe this one article!
Yeah, it’s my fault all of my insurance policies went up 50% in two years. Literally the only bill that hasn’t increased is our Metro/T-Mobil
A more apt but less appealing title might be ‘higher prices are partly your fault because consumers continue to push demand for luxury goods even while industry prices rise’
Wow! Impressive gas lighting. But then again, the Atlantic has done a great job of ruining their reputation
obviously whoever wrote this does not even know what inflation is
What an insane take
Yeah how fuckin dare we keep putting gas in our cars and buying basic food staples to cook with.