User Panel
User Panel
User Panel
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Posted: 12/13/2023 9:53:45 AM EST
[#1]
A close study of corporate financial dealings shows deception, eh?
That's cool. Now do government.  |
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Posted: 12/13/2023 9:56:47 AM EST
[#2]
In 2019, we spent $8.9 million on material (steel).
In 2022, we spent $16.4 million. Given how comparing the revenue of the 2 years is nonsensical given the changes in expenses, our employment level was static and labor hours relatively static. |
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Posted: 12/13/2023 9:57:30 AM EST
[#3]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Unless that product is healthcare. Apparently they don't care when people can't afford their product anymore. Thank company provided insurance vs individual patient negotiated costs Thank the media and government for essentially forcing hospitals to treat all patients even if they refuse to pay, ever. Thank Obamacare for making non-government run healthcare as efficient as government run healthcare. Thank the government for flooding the country with millions of unhealthy individuals who get healthcare and never pay. If you wonder why you, as a payer, have insane bills, see the above. Yes, there are individuals that can be greedy, but those are generally the non-medical executives, who are often VERY political. I will let you guess which side they support. Even if you eliminated them, all the other factors compound and it would make no difference. If hospitals were really raking it in, none would ever close. The number of hospitals in the U.S. has shown a steady decline since 1975. These hospitals included some 919,559 beds in 2019, a number that is significantly lower than the 1.5 million beds that were counted in 1975. In the United States, some 36.2 million hospital admissions were reported in 2019. https://www.statista.com/statistics/185843/number-of-all-hospitals-in-the-us/ |
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Posted: 12/13/2023 9:57:57 AM EST
[#4]
Fucking horseshit. Private corporations cannot drive inflation. That ability rests solely on those who issue currency.
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Posted: 12/13/2023 10:00:22 AM EST
[#5]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Corporations are no more your friend than gov is. They both see you as sheep to be sheered . If you have $100 left over at then end of the week, they both believe that taxes and prices are too low. While that is true, I can choose to do business with the corporations, I don’t have that choice with the government at any level. Government is a monopoly of both force and law and unless big corp has that level of power they are totally different things. |
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Posted: 12/13/2023 10:06:32 AM EST
[#6]
Quote HistoryQuoted: While that is true, I can choose to do business with the corporations, I don't have that choice with the government at any level. Government is a monopoly of both force and law and unless big corp has that level of power they are totally different things. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: Corporations are no more your friend than gov is. They both see you as sheep to be sheered . If you have $100 left over at then end of the week, they both believe that taxes and prices are too low. While that is true, I can choose to do business with the corporations, I don't have that choice with the government at any level. Government is a monopoly of both force and law and unless big corp has that level of power they are totally different things. While true, marxists & commies don't see it that way. |
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Posted: 12/13/2023 10:07:57 AM EST
[#7]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Not saying the guys conducting the study didn’t have an agenda but that doesn’t mean they are wrong. The reason I heard most about rising prices was difficulty sourcing components. In the next sentence they were reducing production to maintain pricing. I don’t remember very many announcements of lower profits that didn’t include a write off of some sort or labor dispute. If rising costs were the reason for price increases, shouldn’t the profit margin remain the same? There were many industries that reported all time highes with profit. This was all part of the turning the screws to America. What was the saying..”we’re all in this together.” Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: Quoted: Lol. https://www.common-wealth.org/ We live in a time of overlapping challenges: concentrated corporate power, rising inequalities, a broken housing system, unaccountable control over our technological futures, creaking public services, a devalued care system, attacks on working people — all unfolding within a deepening climate and nature emergency. We believe these challenges share a common root: ownership. Common Wealth was founded in 2019 based on the insights that ownership is the structuring force in our economy and that current relations of property and power are social in origin — and therefore can and must be reimagined. Working at all levels from community and grassroots groups to national and international policymakers, we combine rigorous analysis and research with bold ideas for an economy that works for everyone https://i.imgflip.com/490as2.jpg Not saying the guys conducting the study didn’t have an agenda but that doesn’t mean they are wrong. The reason I heard most about rising prices was difficulty sourcing components. In the next sentence they were reducing production to maintain pricing. I don’t remember very many announcements of lower profits that didn’t include a write off of some sort or labor dispute. If rising costs were the reason for price increases, shouldn’t the profit margin remain the same? There were many industries that reported all time highes with profit. This was all part of the turning the screws to America. What was the saying..”we’re all in this together.” People were also forced to stay home, not work or both so certain industries like Amazon, Walmart and target made huge profits because people had no where to go and bought stuff that would make their semi prison experience seem more tolerable. Now look on the other side many businesses closed their doors forever because of the same reasons. The record profits were because of government intervention in the market place, not because of the companies that make up that market place, they just used the new (at the time) reality to their monetary benefit. These guys doing the study are big government simping stooges, and that they say property is a large part of our problem makes their study flawed at best but I’m thinking there is an agenda behind it. Follow the trail of money behind them and you will see what that agenda actually is. |
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Posted: 12/13/2023 10:08:11 AM EST
[#8]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Fucking BS There's only one source of inflation : government "There is one and only one basic cause of inflation: too high a rate of growth in the quantity of money—too much money chasing the available supply of goods and services. These days, that cause is produced in Washington, proximately, by the Federal Reserve System, which determines what happens to the quantity of money; ultimately, by the political and other pressures impinging on the System, of which the most important are the pressures to create money in order to pay for exploding Federal spending and in order to promote the goal of “full employment.” All other alleged causes of inflation—trade union intransigence, greedy business corporations, spend-thrift consumers, bad crops, harsh winters, OPEC [Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries] cartels and so on—are either consequences of inflation, or excuses by Washington, or sources of temporary blips of inflation." - Milton Friedman |
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Posted: 12/13/2023 10:10:15 AM EST
[#9]
I have seen this at work in my company for the last couple years. We’re charging people obscene amounts of money for stuff that used to be relatively affordable and blaming it on unspecified market price increases and/or inflation. It’s true that our supplier prices and inflation have gone up, but not proportionally to what we’re charging customers. In some cases we might be charging 60-70% more for the same product than we were in 2020. The honest answer to questions about price increases would be, “it costs more because we want more money.”
I wouldn’t say that we’ve adjusted to what the market will bear because we’ve been dropped by a lot of customers, citing high prices. I guess the smart MBA’s in charge have determined that’s acceptable since we’re still making a higher profit margin from the remaining customers. |
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Posted: 12/13/2023 10:31:50 AM EST
[#10]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I have seen this at work in my company for the last couple years. We’re charging people obscene amounts of money for stuff that used to be relatively affordable and blaming it on unspecified market price increases and/or inflation. It’s true that the our supplier prices and inflation have gone up, but not proportionally to what we’re charging customers. In some cases we might be charging 60-70% more for the same product than we were in 2020. The honest answer to questions about price increases would be, “it costs more because we want more money.” I wouldn’t say that we’ve adjusted to what the market will bear because we’ve been dropped by a lot of customers, citing high prices. I guess the smart MBA’s in charge have determined that’s acceptable since we’re still making a higher profit margin from the remaining customers. End stage capitalism, whooo!  There’s a lot of support in here for a “their business, their rules” approach to bending over the consumer and charging them the absolute highest rate the company can for the simple desire of maximizing profits while everything is priced high. It’s a cycle that won’t break because the company will make hay while the sun shines. However, there’s an understanding (right or wrong) by the consumer that crosses political divides that this inflation is the result of greed. If you all don’t see the problem brewing here that will result in government intervention or a wild swing to a radical form of governance then you’re blind to how we’ve shifted from capitalism into corporatism. Don’t believe me? Look at the “muh new truck is too expensive” threads that have already infected GD. Consumer goods, vehicles, housing, health insurance, etc are all at historic high prices and your fellow voters in America are unhappy. The blame to that unhappiness isn’t being attributed to the unchecked government spending but rather the corporations who decide the pricing. The next twenty years will be an interesting ride. |
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Posted: 12/13/2023 10:41:53 AM EST
[#11]
Those who charge excessive prices, are, in theory, in danger of losing custom to their competitors. Now, when all the competitors collude to raise prices in concert, that is one situation where a higher authority needs to step in.
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Posted: 12/13/2023 10:44:02 AM EST
[#12]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Corporations are no more your friend than gov is. They both see you as sheep to be sheered . If you have $100 left over at then end of the week, they both believe that taxes and prices are too low. Corporations Are your friend. When you’re a shareholder.  That’s what they exist for. Not for the betterment of humanity, or society or the individual. It’s a big club, and you can be in it. |
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Posted: 12/13/2023 10:57:12 AM EST
[#13]
Quote HistoryQuoted: News Flash: Businesses will charge whatever price the market will bear. They know when it's too high when people stop buying their products. This |
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Posted: 12/13/2023 11:03:58 AM EST
[#14]
I dont think people understand accounting. If you are a company that makes large investments in increasingly expensive machinery or other capital expenditures you dont make those purchases often but need to be able to afford the next big purchase so looking at the profit margin right now with the old cost in the margin isnt a full picture.
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Posted: 12/13/2023 11:42:45 AM EST
[#15]
The Justin Truturd Liberals and their media have been trying very hard to deflect the blame for their inflationary spending onto the backs of evil capitalists. I’m not buying the bridge. This seems similar.
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Posted: 12/13/2023 12:04:47 PM EST
[#16]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I have seen this at work in my company for the last couple years. We’re charging people obscene amounts of money for stuff that used to be relatively affordable and blaming it on unspecified market price increases and/or inflation. It’s true that our supplier prices and inflation have gone up, but not proportionally to what we’re charging customers. In some cases we might be charging 60-70% more for the same product than we were in 2020. The honest answer to questions about price increases would be, “it costs more because we want more money.” I wouldn’t say that we’ve adjusted to what the market will bear because we’ve been dropped by a lot of customers, citing high prices. I guess the smart MBA’s in charge have determined that’s acceptable since we’re still making a higher profit margin from the remaining customers. What has your companies payroll looked like from a couple years ago to now? What about their insurance premiums? |
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Posted: 12/13/2023 12:33:18 PM EST
[#17]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Corporations Are your friend. When you’re a shareholder. That’s what they exist for. Not for the betterment of humanity, or society or the individual. It’s a big club, and you can be in it. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: Corporations are no more your friend than gov is. They both see you as sheep to be sheered . If you have $100 left over at then end of the week, they both believe that taxes and prices are too low. Corporations Are your friend. When you’re a shareholder. That’s what they exist for. Not for the betterment of humanity, or society or the individual. It’s a big club, and you can be in it. Now examine ESG as a motivation for corporate governance... Corporations do not exist solely to provide profit to shareholders any more. In a perfect world we'd see derivative lawsuits and replaced corporate boards in response, but.... |
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Posted: 12/13/2023 12:45:28 PM EST
[#18]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Not saying the guys conducting the study didn’t have an agenda but that doesn’t mean they are wrong. The reason I heard most about rising prices was difficulty sourcing components. In the next sentence they were reducing production to maintain pricing. I don’t remember very many announcements of lower profits that didn’t include a write off of some sort or labor dispute. If rising costs were the reason for price increases, shouldn’t the profit margin remain the same? There were many industries that reported all time highes with profit. This was all part of the turning the screws to America. What was the saying..”we’re all in this together.” The fallacy in your thinking is why should profits ever remain the same? The whole premise of this system is to maximize profit in prefect harmony with price discovery that the market will bear. So faulting companies for making more profit? Clearly they could charge more, as evidenced by their increasing profits.... ETA: I should have prompted you to ask the next question... why were they able to charge more? Several folks in this thread already have answered this. 
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Posted: 12/13/2023 1:10:47 PM EST
[#19]
Quote HistoryQuoted: What has your companies payroll looked like from a couple years ago to now? What about their insurance premiums? Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: I have seen this at work in my company for the last couple years. We’re charging people obscene amounts of money for stuff that used to be relatively affordable and blaming it on unspecified market price increases and/or inflation. It’s true that our supplier prices and inflation have gone up, but not proportionally to what we’re charging customers. In some cases we might be charging 60-70% more for the same product than we were in 2020. The honest answer to questions about price increases would be, “it costs more because we want more money.” I wouldn’t say that we’ve adjusted to what the market will bear because we’ve been dropped by a lot of customers, citing high prices. I guess the smart MBA’s in charge have determined that’s acceptable since we’re still making a higher profit margin from the remaining customers. What has your companies payroll looked like from a couple years ago to now? What about their insurance premiums? We’ve increased individual wages about 9% total on average over the last three years - my salary has been stagnant for two years (HR claims I’m already earning above the “pay range” for my job, I guess that’s very convenient for them..), but our lower-earning hourly rate employees have received some modest raises. The healthcare premiums have increased approximately 9.5%. I’m not sure what we’re paying out for liability and workers comp, etc. right now. |
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Posted: 12/13/2023 1:22:18 PM EST
[#20]
But inflation is just 3.1%!
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Posted: 12/13/2023 3:03:22 PM EST
[#21]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I have seen this at work in my company for the last couple years. We’re charging people obscene amounts of money for stuff that used to be relatively affordable and blaming it on unspecified market price increases and/or inflation. It’s true that our supplier prices and inflation have gone up, but not proportionally to what we’re charging customers. In some cases we might be charging 60-70% more for the same product than we were in 2020. The honest answer to questions about price increases would be, “it costs more because we want more money.” I wouldn’t say that we’ve adjusted to what the market will bear because we’ve been dropped by a lot of customers, citing high prices. I guess the smart MBA’s in charge have determined that’s acceptable since we’re still making a higher profit margin from the remaining customers. Without knowing your business my only question is whether or not you had too many customers trying to buy too much of your product in time frames you couldn't achieve. Because in that case you raise prices specifically to lower demand. |
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Posted: 12/13/2023 8:00:17 PM EST
[#22]
I own a small business that has been doing well, we're losing money now because costs are so high.
Businesses that are lying about it are hurting everyone because we get lumped into that |
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Posted: 12/13/2023 8:03:55 PM EST
[#23]
I bet real inflation is closer to 30 percent over the last 4 years
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Posted: 12/13/2023 8:09:18 PM EST
[#24]
Companies also examine what future costs (including capital costs) will be when they price their products, and they do that for a number of reasons.
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Posted: 12/13/2023 8:09:46 PM EST
[#25]
Quote HistoryQuoted: News Flash: Businesses will charge whatever price the market will bear. They know when it's too high when people stop buying their products. It is called free enterprise. |
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Posted: 12/13/2023 8:24:14 PM EST
[#26]
Damnit, OP you can do better than this
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Posted: 12/13/2023 8:42:47 PM EST
[#27]
Are they quantifying increases in profit in terms of dollars, or in terms of percentage of revenue?
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Posted: 12/13/2023 8:47:18 PM EST
[#28]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Maybe they are right, I don't know. I do have a partial understanding of leftist though and they will blame everyone other than themselves. With the left feelings take precedence over facts if it weakens the need for personal responsibility. |
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Posted: 12/13/2023 8:49:24 PM EST
[#29]
Profits "increase" so the vendor can afford to repurchase the stock at the now higher prices. But I'm betting that bullshit news site didn't bother to look at that side of the equation.
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Posted: 12/13/2023 8:53:01 PM EST
[#30]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Fucking BS There's only one source of inflation : government "There is one and only one basic cause of inflation: too high a rate of growth in the quantity of money—too much money chasing the available supply of goods and services. These days, that cause is produced in Washington, proximately, by the Federal Reserve System, which determines what happens to the quantity of money; ultimately, by the political and other pressures impinging on the System, of which the most important are the pressures to create money in order to pay for exploding Federal spending and in order to promote the goal of “full employment.” All other alleged causes of inflation—trade union intransigence, greedy business corporations, spend-thrift consumers, bad crops, harsh winters, OPEC [Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries] cartels and so on—are either consequences of inflation, or excuses by Washington, or sources of temporary blips of inflation." - Milton Friedman I wish Friedman were still around. It would be fucking epic to watch him smack down leftist bullshit today. |
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Posted: 12/13/2023 9:07:31 PM EST
[#31]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Fucking horseshit. Private corporations cannot drive inflation. That ability rests solely on those who issue currency. You're partly right. Corporations don't drive it and they should just say "yep, we charged more because we can now. Fuck you, we don't need 'excuses'". But the ability to drive inflation does not, in fact, solely rest with government fiscal policy. |
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Posted: 12/13/2023 9:17:11 PM EST
[#32]
Quote HistoryQuoted: You're partly right. Corporations don't drive it and they should just say "yep, we charged more because we can now. Fuck you, we don't need 'excuses'". But the ability to drive inflation does not, in fact, solely rest with government fiscal policy. What is the reason they "can now" in your example? Is it because demand exceeds supply? Why is demand so high? Is it because the number of dollars was increased and therefore devalued? Yes, the government and the federal reserve are solely responsible for inflation, because they solely control the value of the dollar by controlling the number of dollars available. |
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Posted: 12/13/2023 9:32:05 PM EST
[#33]
Gross margin % would show price gouging. Look at the numbers.
GM has been 20%, dropped to 19% last 10k Walmart 25%, dropped to 24% Tyson, 13.9%, 12.5%, 5.0% Target was 29.3%, dropped to 24.6% And on and on. All consistent, or dropping. That isn’t what price gouging does, that’s what inflation does. ETA those are all the last three reported years. If there’s only two numbers it’s because two were the same |
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Posted: 12/13/2023 10:05:17 PM EST
[#34]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Without knowing your business my only question is whether or not you had too many customers trying to buy too much of your product in time frames you couldn't achieve. Because in that case you raise prices specifically to lower demand. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: I have seen this at work in my company for the last couple years. We’re charging people obscene amounts of money for stuff that used to be relatively affordable and blaming it on unspecified market price increases and/or inflation. It’s true that our supplier prices and inflation have gone up, but not proportionally to what we’re charging customers. In some cases we might be charging 60-70% more for the same product than we were in 2020. The honest answer to questions about price increases would be, “it costs more because we want more money.” I wouldn’t say that we’ve adjusted to what the market will bear because we’ve been dropped by a lot of customers, citing high prices. I guess the smart MBA’s in charge have determined that’s acceptable since we’re still making a higher profit margin from the remaining customers. Without knowing your business my only question is whether or not you had too many customers trying to buy too much of your product in time frames you couldn't achieve. Because in that case you raise prices specifically to lower demand. There is some of that at work, we’ve outright dropped certain sectors where we weren’t performing well in the past. All the same though… I’ve seen us drop nearly two-thirds of our overall annual revenue in the last three years. That is a lot of business to abandon and even if some of it was necessary I think that was an abrupt and heavy handed approach that cost a lot of credibility with customers who are unlikely to take us back. |
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Posted: 12/13/2023 10:08:02 PM EST
[#35]
The “supply chain issue” is a gigantic bs story in lots of cases imho.
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Posted: 12/13/2023 10:26:34 PM EST
[#36]
Quote HistoryQuoted: What is the reason they "can now" in your example? Is it because demand exceeds supply? Why is demand so high? Is it because the number of dollars was increased and therefore devalued? Yes, the government and the federal reserve are solely responsible for inflation, because they solely control the value of the dollar by controlling the number of dollars available. They don't. And if supply becomes limited then same number of dollars chasing fewer goods means inflation, money supply doesn't have to change one way or the other. |
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Posted: 12/13/2023 10:30:07 PM EST
[#37]
We charge the prices the market will bear.
My material costs go up 7% maybe I bump my prices 10%. I either win orders or I don’t. |
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Posted: 12/13/2023 10:31:57 PM EST
[#38]
Did OP just drop this commie bullshit and bounce?
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Posted: 12/13/2023 10:32:21 PM EST
[#39]
So... when prices are stagnant, is that because corporations aren't greedy?
Or is it more likely that corporations are always greedy, and always charge what people are willing to buy, just like everyone else...? And the reason they charge more now is because the government has devalued the dollar by creating massive amounts of money not backed by increases in production? Here is a graph of the USA's money supply, if anyone is unclear on why prices have spiked: 
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Posted: 12/13/2023 10:39:55 PM EST
[#40]
I'm curious how much real estate valuation is bring counted as "profits." If I sell my corporate building in San Francisco and relocate to Muleshoe, Texas, I'm going to have some profits. In fact, pretty much any capital asset similar to real estate is likely to have increased in value.
Now, if their total expenses to make product X went up 8% and they raised the price 30%, that would be different. I'm just going to WAG that this study uses gross or net profits across a wide range of corporate transactions and probably cherry-picked as well. |
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Posted: 12/14/2023 3:44:26 AM EST
[#41]
Quote HistoryQuoted: When you see a list of "driving factors of inflation", or whatever phrase gets used, it never includes govt/central bank inflating the money supply. That’s because they are lying, and anything else they say is assumed to be a lie as well. |
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Posted: 12/14/2023 5:04:09 AM EST
[#42]
10% per year for 3 years, when everyone (except the .gov) is saying at least 2 of those 3 years had 20+% inflation. Seems to scale.
The first year of covid did cause crazy material cost increases that hurt the bottom line due to contracted prices to our customers. That being said, my employer increased his profit margin to unprecedented heights when the demand in (our) market continued to skyrocket, and could be heard bullshitting his favorite customers about his costs every day, while he completely oversold our capacity and buried us in work. I was disgusted with all the lying, and taking advantage of the situation while hurting so many of our customers that had been loyal (and gotten great service and product) for a long time, so I ultimately removed myself from the equation. |
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Posted: 12/14/2023 5:36:41 AM EST
[#43]
BS commie propaganda!
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