The prices for fixed costs have gone up, too. People need a place to live, the health to keep living, and ways of ensuring access to both, and the costs of all of those have gone up as well. A not insignificant chuck of people don’t have discretionary spending to cut (not to mention how stressful living paycheck-to-paycheck on the bare essentials can be). Yes, it is certainly worth reevaluating budgets and determining where expenses can be lowered, but those margins have been getting thinner for a long while.
I agree many things have gone up, BUT over the last couple years people kept purchasing without adjustment. I’ve adjusted my grocery purchases (and I’m a nerd who tracks this in spreadsheets) to the point where my monthly costs have gone up 4% over the last 3 years.
New vehicles have shot up in price and people were still waiting in line to buy more! Trillion+ in car loan debt in the U.S… Many of these folks could have bought a used car, fixed their old car, or just waited and purchased later. The numbers are there and support what I’m saying. I’m still driving a very old car (> 15 years old) because I think it’s idiotic to buy another one right now. It sucks, but better than blowing my hard earned cash. This is coming from someone who can afford to ignore interest rates and pay cash and I still won’t do it.
At the end of the day corporations will always be greedy, but only if they can. If people stop buying they can no longer be greedy (supply vs demand). We may be at the point now where people have over extended themselves so much that they simply can’t afford the dumb purchases anymore which means corporations have extracted the maximum from people’s wallets. Sad situation, but I blame both corporations and people.
The prices for fixed costs have gone up, too. People need a place to live, the health to keep living, and ways of ensuring access to both, and the costs of all of those have gone up as well. A not insignificant chuck of people don’t have discretionary spending to cut (not to mention how stressful living paycheck-to-paycheck on the bare essentials can be). Yes, it is certainly worth reevaluating budgets and determining where expenses can be lowered, but those margins have been getting thinner for a long while.
No, you don’t get it. Corporations aren’t greedy, you’re at fault for needing food and shelter.
I agree many things have gone up, BUT over the last couple years people kept purchasing without adjustment. I’ve adjusted my grocery purchases (and I’m a nerd who tracks this in spreadsheets) to the point where my monthly costs have gone up 4% over the last 3 years.
New vehicles have shot up in price and people were still waiting in line to buy more! Trillion+ in car loan debt in the U.S… Many of these folks could have bought a used car, fixed their old car, or just waited and purchased later. The numbers are there and support what I’m saying. I’m still driving a very old car (> 15 years old) because I think it’s idiotic to buy another one right now. It sucks, but better than blowing my hard earned cash. This is coming from someone who can afford to ignore interest rates and pay cash and I still won’t do it.
At the end of the day corporations will always be greedy, but only if they can. If people stop buying they can no longer be greedy (supply vs demand). We may be at the point now where people have over extended themselves so much that they simply can’t afford the dumb purchases anymore which means corporations have extracted the maximum from people’s wallets. Sad situation, but I blame both corporations and people.