What’s infuriating about the power economic news holds over elections is that the average Joe or Jane rarely sees the benefits of a so-called “good economy.” Especially right now after such a significant event like the pandemic. Why? Because the upper class, the ones who truly profit, are still busy price gouging like it’s the height of the pandemic. They’ve learned they can keep squeezing more out of consumers, simply because they can. Fucking goldbrickers. Don’t believe it? Do you have eyes?
Did anyone really expect them to do the right thing and lower prices once supply chain issues were sorted out? When they know people are still paying inflated prices, why on earth would they backtrack? It’s all about maximizing profits, ethics be damned.
And let’s not forget about the workforce. Companies slashed jobs during the pandemic, and now they’ve decided to just leave it that way. “People don’t want to work” we heard over and over but with prices skyrocketing, and wages not skyrocketing, who wants to go work for a less than a living wage? Raise wages, and they’ll work. And it’s not just the service industry. Corporations are perfectly fine making office workers do the work of five people, because they know we don’t have a choice. The bottom line is always more important than human well-being. There were mass layoffs, they didn’t bring all those people back. Someone has to do that work.
Financially successful people are thriving, riding high on a wave of prosperity. Meanwhile, the middle class and lower-income workers are watching their money lose value as expenses soar beyond their reach.
Tiered pricing, shrinkflation, endless fees, and the relentless march toward turning everything into a subscription service are all ways companies have found to keep their share prices sky-high, fueled by the meteoric rise of financial assets. Consumers today are treated less like valued customers and more like prey in a corporate hunting ground.
