There is more than enough excess money in this country that we could easily give every single American citizen $1 million dollars.
your could easily yes but this would also be silly (and not solve homelessness), you want to look up the neutrality of money
eg. if everyone got a million dollar’s inflation would explode, milk would inflate up to cost $5000 and you would be back to square one
you already got a minor taste of it during covid and voted in the current american president because it hurt so much apparently, i don’t know anyone seriously suggesting to ‘helicopter drop’ (see milton friedmens thought experiment) $1 million to everyone to solve homelessness
Speculation, but possible, but it doesn’t have to be that way. We could easily institute regulations that would punish price gouging. You can’t do it after a natural disaster, and you can’t do it here. If you are caught raising your prices more than 5%, and you don’t have corroborating evidence of your higher costs (supplier invoices, etc), then you’re going to jail. Most businesses will comply with the law, and those that won’t will stick out, and will be forced to go back to normal pricing.
And Covid is NOT your argument. The economy was supposed to crash during Covid, but it actually weathered it well, and some business actually thrived, like the delivery business. Door Dash, Instacart, etc. were all struggling, but they boomed during Covid, as many people used them for the first time. Amazon boomed, and other retailers like Walmart and Target, who had been trying to compete with Amazon, suddenly had plenty of new customers.
My mother lives in one of those active adult, 55+ communities, which are exactly the kind of places that don’t like to use the new-fangled Internet doohickeys. But they all jumped on the delivery services, which they NEVER would have considered before, and they are still using them. They also got into mail-order like never before, and there is an army of delivery trucks weaving through the neighborhood all day.
The economy boomed during Covid, and even IMPROVED for some sectors, demonstrating that UBI can work, and giving money directly to consumers who will spend it, is much more stimulative to the economy than giving another massive tax break to a Sociopathic Oligarch.
Or we can continue with the mantra of the wealthy: Don’t give it to the poor, the poor get all the breaks, it’s not fair to us. Besides, they’ll just spend it on petty stuff, like food and rent, instead of investing it wisely. Better to give it to the wealthy, who will handle the money responsibly, and not just spend it wildly.
Appreciate that you put effort into the post as most of the posts here are snarky one liners, I can’t respond to it all so ultimately we’re just going to have to agree to disagree
If you are caught raising your prices more than 5%, and you don’t have corroborating evidence of your higher costs (supplier invoices, etc), then you’re going to jail.
This doesn’t make sense, costs for everything go up, everyone’s throwing cash about, remember the farmer who milks the cow now has a million dollars, he now wants to buy a house/car/all the things he couldn’t afford before, demand goes up, there’s the same amount of supply = price goes up, lambo’s cost 250k? when 20 million people order them, not enough supply, the price goes up to 2 million, this is basically the whole reason we had worldwide inflation after covid, whole lotta stimulus, not enough supply
The economy boomed during Covid
Yes and no, as you said some areas boomed however the after effects hurt a lot apparently:
Trump won voters who prioritized economy and immigration
All I have to say is that of course prices are constantly increasing, but a 200% increase following something like a large distribution of money, would be an obvious red flag for gouging.
The point is that regulating the situation would keep most retailers in line, and the price gougers couldn’t get away with it on a massive scale. That’s what happened to college tuitions when the government made it easy to get college loans, but didn’t regulate the cost of tuitions. So colleges cranked up their prices to force young people to take on a lifetime of debt as the price of admission to the POSSIBILITY of getting a decently paying job.
Now we have a growing economic time bomb in annually growing student debt that will eventually crash the economy, as people will no longer be able to afford literally ANYTHING they require for basic living, like a home or a car, or even food.
your could easily yes but this would also be silly (and not solve homelessness), you want to look up the neutrality of money
eg. if everyone got a million dollar’s inflation would explode, milk would inflate up to cost $5000 and you would be back to square one
you already got a minor taste of it during covid and voted in the current american president because it hurt so much apparently, i don’t know anyone seriously suggesting to ‘helicopter drop’ (see milton friedmens thought experiment) $1 million to everyone to solve homelessness
Speculation, but possible, but it doesn’t have to be that way. We could easily institute regulations that would punish price gouging. You can’t do it after a natural disaster, and you can’t do it here. If you are caught raising your prices more than 5%, and you don’t have corroborating evidence of your higher costs (supplier invoices, etc), then you’re going to jail. Most businesses will comply with the law, and those that won’t will stick out, and will be forced to go back to normal pricing.
And Covid is NOT your argument. The economy was supposed to crash during Covid, but it actually weathered it well, and some business actually thrived, like the delivery business. Door Dash, Instacart, etc. were all struggling, but they boomed during Covid, as many people used them for the first time. Amazon boomed, and other retailers like Walmart and Target, who had been trying to compete with Amazon, suddenly had plenty of new customers.
My mother lives in one of those active adult, 55+ communities, which are exactly the kind of places that don’t like to use the new-fangled Internet doohickeys. But they all jumped on the delivery services, which they NEVER would have considered before, and they are still using them. They also got into mail-order like never before, and there is an army of delivery trucks weaving through the neighborhood all day.
The economy boomed during Covid, and even IMPROVED for some sectors, demonstrating that UBI can work, and giving money directly to consumers who will spend it, is much more stimulative to the economy than giving another massive tax break to a Sociopathic Oligarch.
Or we can continue with the mantra of the wealthy: Don’t give it to the poor, the poor get all the breaks, it’s not fair to us. Besides, they’ll just spend it on petty stuff, like food and rent, instead of investing it wisely. Better to give it to the wealthy, who will handle the money responsibly, and not just spend it wildly.
Appreciate that you put effort into the post as most of the posts here are snarky one liners, I can’t respond to it all so ultimately we’re just going to have to agree to disagree
This doesn’t make sense, costs for everything go up, everyone’s throwing cash about, remember the farmer who milks the cow now has a million dollars, he now wants to buy a house/car/all the things he couldn’t afford before, demand goes up, there’s the same amount of supply = price goes up, lambo’s cost 250k? when 20 million people order them, not enough supply, the price goes up to 2 million, this is basically the whole reason we had worldwide inflation after covid, whole lotta stimulus, not enough supply
Yes and no, as you said some areas boomed however the after effects hurt a lot apparently:
https://abcnews.com/538/voters-chose-trump/story?id=115827243
Giving the poorest a temporary increase in money != UBI
The poor get plenty of money across Europe and everywhere else not America
I think half the time I have to adjust my view because I’m not American
Anyway good post, last one from me
All I have to say is that of course prices are constantly increasing, but a 200% increase following something like a large distribution of money, would be an obvious red flag for gouging.
The point is that regulating the situation would keep most retailers in line, and the price gougers couldn’t get away with it on a massive scale. That’s what happened to college tuitions when the government made it easy to get college loans, but didn’t regulate the cost of tuitions. So colleges cranked up their prices to force young people to take on a lifetime of debt as the price of admission to the POSSIBILITY of getting a decently paying job.
Now we have a growing economic time bomb in annually growing student debt that will eventually crash the economy, as people will no longer be able to afford literally ANYTHING they require for basic living, like a home or a car, or even food.