The price of Huggies diapers went up 6% between April- June 2023.
Inflation, right? Wrong.
Kimberly-Clark, the maker of Huggies, reported that the cost to make its products fell by $75 million.They took the money and ran, banking $168 million in operating profits in Q3 2023.
Now, new research shows that corporate profits drove 53% of inflation during the 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2023. During the 40 years prior to the pandemic, profits drove just 11% of price growth.
#Profiteering: It’s been illegal for decades.
And, sadly, corporations havne't suffered for it.
@rbreich Gee … not enough competitive pressure?
Anti-trust laws, regulations, taxation with investment insentives …
all this needs to be stronger…
from a responsible, competent body of legislators acting and speaking on behalf of the best interests of their constituents, and the country…
I think one key objective to get us back to this direction is overturning Citizens United…
Another is regulating lies, and news & media propagating them (harder, but important)…
Corporate death penalty is sorely needed.
I have also argued for a strong form of ‘financial imprisonment’ or financial ‘house arrest’ as a response to serious ‘white collar’ crime.
@NosirrahSec @rbreich @WhiteCatTamer
I figure the logic like this: when people show they can’t be trusted with how they use their body, we limit their freedom of movement to protect others, likewise; when people show they can’t be trusted with capital, we should limit their financial freedom to protect others. Not penury, but a reasonable limit like income capped at somewhere around the 50th percentile.
@CatDragon @rbreich Millions of people don't have personal laundry machines and most commercial laundries don't allow diapers for sanitary reasons. And cloth diaper services are way too expensive for most people, too.
This is another one of those situations where we have to solve the economic problem before we can solve the environmental one.
@CatDragon @rbreich My great grandma died after ruining her body with 9 kids because she didn't have access to birth control.
Fetishizing low-tech eras without thinking about the enormous body counts those involve is ridiculous.
@CatDragon @rbreich And people who live in urban areas and are working two jobs would have the time, energy and skills to do all this when, exactly?
Your little cottagecore life works for you, and that's fine. But it's not how modern life works for millions of other people.
That's one explanation. Another is companies charge whatever the market will bear - in other words, the highest price they can squeeze out of consumers. Yet another is when companies let greed get the better of them and just continue to charge far more than they need after circumstances have changed and scarcity &/or production costs no longer justify prices.
Well, at least the rich get even richer by milking all the dumb peasants, right?
I wonder when people will ever realize that at least half of our problems, if not much, much more, would be solved, if you disown all the billionaires and millionaires + make it impossible for people to earn such money + put a cap of wealth + set all land to belong to the state.
This is true. Inflation based in profit-stealing, disgustingly, are driving inflation, and you can calculate what cost increases ALSO drive inflation, and calculate which is just "gimme."
AND some of the "cost" portion of a products price rise is THEIR suppliers profit-stealing, suppliers who have NO cost increases.
@rbreich This is why basic necessities can't be left to profiteering. The more basic the need (ie, utilities and housing), the worse the gouging.
I totally get the need for free-market, but there are places where we need to say, "Hands off!", even if we start regulating just one industry at a time.
Screw over the poor, blame Dem president.
Gop president, reduce prices and then say how great of a job he is doing. (Always a he).
It's a conspiracy writ so large as to be unbelievable.
I said this decades ago, and it remains true.
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