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Alondra's avatar

I have been given to believe that that the current siege of inflation can be attributed largely to Covid money sloshing around, Covid and Ukraine War supply chain disruptions, and the necessity of publicly traded corporations to increase profits so as to keep investors happy (rather than absorbing increased prices resulting in lower profits as a public service to contain inflation). But, I could be wrong; it might be that it's all the fault of the super-rich continuing their lavish spending, as you suggest. I personally would love to hear of one CEO of a consumer goods corp say to investors on the quarterly conference call that s/he is reporting lower profits because s/he is taking a stand against inflation. I have heard of CEO's cackling and bragging of riding inflation to greater profits.

Nobody can tell me that Kari Lake, DeSantis, Oz, and what's-his-name are not culture warriors of the very first order. This election, imo, is a culture battle. MAGA's are not the poor and downtrodden, but the angry and vindictive. ( MAGA leisure boat rallies, MAGA groupies wandering from rally to rally, jet rides to insurrections.) Yes, inflation is a huge issue to the middle class, including me. I just paid 8 freaking bucks for a loaf of bread and another 8 for a pound of butter. Hurts like hell. But blaming the super-rich isn't really an answer. In general I agree with you that our culture has adopted the greed is good mantra to our very great, possibly fatal, detriment. Humans do not live by bread alone.

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Travis's avatar

I'm not saying the rich are the primary drivers of inflation, I'm just saying that they keep prices pegged higher when normal inflationary pressures and the curtailed spending it brings would usually drive prices down. Rich people slow the onset of deflation because they keep prices pegged high when there are enough rich people keeping inventories moving. They're a force multiplier for inflation, not a direct cause. The direct causes are the ones you cited (federal spending on CV, CV itself, Russian invasion, massive bird flu culls).

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Migs's avatar

They don’t. It’s wrong. There are many reasons to argue for taxing the wealthy. Inflation in not even on the top 10000 reasons to do so

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Migs's avatar

Alondra, we can blame them but it won’t solve the problem. There is like 2000 billionaire in the us. There are 330m people. You can take all their wealth but it won’t effect what people pay for bread

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Travis's avatar

1) Again, see the whole whales-move-markets thing (one in every 7 homes in the US is owned by a fund, where the people who own half the national wealth park their money affects things).

2) I'm not blaming the rich directly for broad inflation, just saying that they keep prices pegged higher which delays the onset of deflation. In the case of university tuition and housing supplies they are 100% one of the big causes for inflation in those sectors.

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Migs's avatar

Billionaire’s have NOTHING to do with inflation. Literally nothing. I totally understand your hate for the Uber wealthy but making arguments about the taxing wealth and inflation is not only historically incorrect it violates every macro economist point of view on the cause of inflation.

What do billionaires cause inflation on? 20 room homes, sports team, mega yachts, etc. it does not cause inflation on rent, oil, consumables, meat, groceries.

I don’t mind debating the benefits of taxing the wealthy but stop making it about inflation. It’s like claiming billionaires are responsible for crime. It’s just ludicrous

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