Janel Comeaugrocery store chains: we set record profits this year
retail chains: we've never made so much money
energy companies: we just posted our best quarter on record
news article: who is to blame for inflation? you peasants wanting wages, probably
essjax@VeryBadLlama yeah poor people, stop buying food and energy, you're ruining the economy. It's all your fault.
gavinisdie 
@Essjax @VeryBadLlama ok *becomes plant*
Richservo 
@Essjax @VeryBadLlama Cut to next year: Demand for groceries and energy at an all time low. Gen Z is to blame! Stop eating Avocado Toast!!!
muxauy 🚴🇪🇺
LayneJ@VeryBadLlama I want to boost this 1000 times.
@huge on Twitter@VeryBadLlama have you checked the price of torches and pick forks?
Rick@huge @VeryBadLlama I’m lucky enough to have some garden forks in the shed, including a couple of really old ones where the tines have worn down to sharp(ish) points. No torches, though - I suppose I could make my own… Maybe we could crowdfund…?
BlackDutchSnark@Djofull @huge @VeryBadLlama I have some metal tiki torches around the pool and citronella oil… I’d be happy to share.
Óscar Morales Vivó@johnettesnuggs @Djofull @huge @VeryBadLlama when the revolution comes, there will be no mosquitoes around.
@MyLittleMetroid @Djofull @huge
@VeryBadLlama
☠️🦟☠️🦟☠️
As Coolio said…”When the Revolution come
I'mma be up front
With my finger on the trigger of a Mossberg Pump
When the Revolution come I'mma be right there
With my nine in my hand and braids in my hair”
RIP, Coolio
Catherine is not complacent
Joan Albright@MyLittleMetroid @johnettesnuggs @Djofull @huge @VeryBadLlama Good thing too, because apparently malaria is back.
@Lironah @MyLittleMetroid @Djofull @huge @VeryBadLlama
I read back in the spring, TB and polio are making a comeback tour as well…fucking antivaxxers
I read back in the spring, TB and polio are making a comeback tour as well…fucking antivaxxers
Ultra Violet 
🌹🏴@huge @VeryBadLlama pitchforks have gotten a bit more expensive lately.
Darthdzl@VeryBadLlama It's not easy, but it is simple: corporations have proven that they can't regulate themselves, so they need to have more regulation imposed upon them.
Regulate profits, break up the largest and most monopolistic companies, stop vertical integration, and/or anything that can help small and medium business become the backbone of the economy.
Large corporations have their place, but they've long since failed to stay in it.
Pamela Merritt@darthdzl @VeryBadLlama Corporations are not people.
No matter how much red areas vote for them as though they were.
Pamela Ehn@ThrillerWriter @darthdzl @VeryBadLlama legally, they are, though. That part of corporate law needs to be changed.
@ThrillerWriter @darthdzl @VeryBadLlama true, but it’s not the Court’s fault that it’s this way. This is something that can only be fixed legislatively.
@cadenza @ThrillerWriter @VeryBadLlama It kinda is though. They're the ones who keep ruling things like "corporations are people", "money is speech", and other things that form the basis for letting business do whatever the hell it wants.
@darthdzl @ThrillerWriter @VeryBadLlama they’re interpreting the law as it is written, and the way corporate law was written in the nineteenth century, well, corporations are kinda people. Change the law and those interpretations no longer apply.
@cadenza @ThrillerWriter @VeryBadLlama Actually, a 19th century decision by the Supreme Court is what started the whole mess. The story, possibly apocryphal, is that the Court decided the other way -- that corporations are NOT people -- and that the clerk who was to record the decision was bribed by the losing side to write it up the opposite way. Once it was written and published, the Court didn't want to weaken itself and let the bad record stand.
@cadenza @ThrillerWriter @VeryBadLlama Even if that story is complete nonsense, there was no law at the time enshrijing corporate personhood, and if I'm not mistaken, it's still mostly case law and not statutory law that maintains that status today. However,, IANAL. I could very well be mistaken. Nor have I looked at your profile (yet). If you're an attorney and know where the bodies are buried... 🙂
@darthdzl @ThrillerWriter @VeryBadLlama it still doesn’t change the fact that if corporate law were changed (for instance, similar to German corporate law which has no personhood and requires corporations to be responsible to parties other than shareholders), it would render Supreme Court decisions moot.
@cadenza @ThrillerWriter @VeryBadLlama I agree, and I never claimed it was all the Supreme Court's fault. I said ALSO their fault. They started Corporate Personhood, and who puts that genie back in the bottle doesn't interest me. Only that it go back in.
@cadenza @ThrillerWriter @VeryBadLlama Unless the Supreme Court declares a piece of legislation ehsrining it in law to be unconstitutional.
@darthdzl @ThrillerWriter @VeryBadLlama which they are not going to do because it would go against precedent. The number of times that the Supreme Court overturned precedent, Roe included, can be counted on one hand. Legislation is the best bet. The court is a check on the law, it can’t make new law.
@cadenza @ThrillerWriter @VeryBadLlama But it can reverse its own precedents. Just pointing out that unlikely does not mean impossible. As I said, we agree and I don't care who loves first. Yes, legislation is more likely than reversal of precedent, but that doesn't mean it's the only way.
@darthdzl @ThrillerWriter @VeryBadLlama if you want change, you’re more likely to achieve it where there is the least resistance.
@cadenza @ThrillerWriter @VeryBadLlama I don't get why you're still arguing this. I've already acknowledged that no less than twice and maybe more.
MarkG@cadenza @ThrillerWriter @darthdzl @VeryBadLlama
I remember seeing The Corporation years ago, which looked at this very issue. Good documentary.
The Corporation
Did you know that the legal system recognises a corporation as a person? What kind of 'person' is it then? What would happen if it sat down with a psychologist to discuss its behaviour and attitude towards society and the environment? Explored through specific examples, this film shows how and why the modern-day corporation has rapaciously pressed itself into the dominant institution of our time, posing big questions about what must be done if we want a equitable and sustainable world. What must we do when corporations are psychopaths?
f*cking b*tch club@VeryBadLlama @darthdzl
If only the current SCOTUS agreed with you. They seem hell-bent on rolling back regulations of any kind.
If only the current SCOTUS agreed with you. They seem hell-bent on rolling back regulations of any kind.
@grammasaurus @VeryBadLlama @darthdzl Well yeah, the current SCOTUS is the most corrupt governing body in our history. It's disgusting.
@darthdzl @VeryBadLlama price controls for essential items. Every time we need something, it’s in short supply- generic drugs, baby food, Tylenol for kids whatever! To price gauge. Government cannot store house everything; create competitors, if not private, then private public or else Government run!!
Ty Ross@darthdzl @VeryBadLlama I agree 100%
Adam@VeryBadLlama You didn't talk about the medical practitioners or doctors
Then the big pharma and their vaccines
Then the big pharma and their vaccines
JoeChip@VeryBadLlama
A subject you will never hear discussed in Econ 101: the profit-price spiral.
A subject you will never hear discussed in Econ 101: the profit-price spiral.
🇨🇦 CowMan 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 🇲🇽@JoeChip @VeryBadLlama keep in mind, the dollars are worth less. Record profits are expected in an inflationary scenario, but doesn't necessarily mean anything...
@cowman @VeryBadLlama
OK if neither profits nor wages are the Big Kahuna of inflation, what is? Constricted supply?
OK if neither profits nor wages are the Big Kahuna of inflation, what is? Constricted supply?
Pensive™️@JoeChip @VeryBadLlama those are all factors, yep, bunch more too, i.e. there is no "one big thing".
Marc "ACAB" Godin@quietmarc @JoeChip @VeryBadLlama outcome. Like if your selling $10 widgets for $11 before, with a 10% markup and $1 profit - but now inflation is running 10%/yr, the next year you can expect to be selling widgets which cost $11 now to make, plus your same 10% markup, would put the price at $12.10, so a $1.10 profit.
Your profits are up 10%, but actually due to the inflation, that purchasing power of that $1.10 is the equivalent of $0.99 from the previous year, so no better off.
@@VeryBadLlama Every. Time.
gotklss2 / annetteAnd are hungry
bitsavers.org
Yugoboy@VeryBadLlama Such brutal common sense.
It's like a whistle that can't be heard by the GOP.
It's like a whistle that can't be heard by the GOP.
Globaltom@VeryBadLlama Walmart could give all its US employees an extra $10,000/year and still make over $100 billion in profit.
Kan Yao@Globaltom @VeryBadLlama Walmart net income last year was $13B - yes a lot but no where near $100B
@screamyao @VeryBadLlama What's your source for that?
According to this, Walmart annual gross profit for 2022 was $143bn (!!).
https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/WMT/walmart/gross-profit
Walmart Gross Profit 2010-2023 | WMT
Walmart annual/quarterly gross profit history and growth rate from 2010 to 2023. Gross profit can be defined as the profit a company makes after deducting the variable costs directly associated with making and selling its products or providing its services. <ul style='margin-top:10px;'> <li>Walmart gross profit for the quarter ending April 30, 2023 was <strong>$37.017B</strong>, a <strong>6.61% increase</strong> year-over-year.</li> <li>Walmart gross profit for the twelve months ending April 30, 2023 was <strong>$149.863B</strong>, a <strong>4.48% increase</strong> year-over-year.</li> <li>Walmart annual gross profit for 2023 was <strong>$147.568B</strong>, a <strong>2.65% increase</strong> from 2022.</li> <li>Walmart annual gross profit for 2022 was <strong>$143.754B</strong>, a <strong>3.54% increase</strong> from 2021.</li> <li>Walmart annual gross profit for 2021 was <strong>$138.836B</strong>, a <strong>7.33% increase</strong> from 2020.</li> </ul>
Robert Link
Alex von Kitchen@VeryBadLlama Companies that sell luxuries: why is no one buying our expensive shit?!
onecaliberal@VeryBadLlama It must be nice to have constituents that are too stupid to breathe.
Voron@VeryBadLlama and Biden administration anti inflation package
-tiny tax breaks for some workers
-A small increase in those who qualify for the ACA
-A reduction in the astronomical price of some prescription drugs (that helps some of the uninsured and insurance companies)
-tiny tax breaks for some workers
-A small increase in those who qualify for the ACA
-A reduction in the astronomical price of some prescription drugs (that helps some of the uninsured and insurance companies)
Riki@VeryBadLlama yes it is pathetic. The media never seems to question the furphy that we are spending too much, and ask why we are spending what we do and the answer is because businesses are demanding more profit.
Dogzilla@VeryBadLlama @tikitavi That’s because “the media” are also very large corporations. They are not going to take your side against other corporations