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.
@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.
Robert Reich
Catherine is not complacent
Texty the Bard