patrick.net

Marc Andreessen and David Sacks slammed Kamala Harris' upcoming price-gouging proposals.

Harris won't share the plan until Friday, but business-minded dissidents aren't waiting to respond.

Regulatory practices have emerged as a key partisan issue in Silicon Valley this election.

This is the SECOND Dem donor revolt in 3 months now.

Why are the Republicans allowing her to hide behind the "Price Gouging" boogeyman?

Why aren't they hitting her, Biden, and Butt Plug about the destruction of our food production industry?
They have decimated Chickens, Cattle, and Produce packaging plants, and allowed what little remained to be owned by the Chinese.
They have criminalized farming, and sold a vast portion of America's farmlands.

It would be impossible for there not to be high prices on everything.

The bromide of "Inflation is caused by greedy corporations price gouging" is great politics. It appeals to adolescents of all ages who think wealth just exists and there is a distribution problem caused by greed, like a kid who sulks his parents will not buy him an upscale gaming console when he knows they make thousands of dollars every month. "Price gouging" also works for the Dems in that the Dems can selectively apply the fix. That is, big donor Tyson would not be accused of gouging but a competitor to Tyson who does not donate to or support Dems would be raided.

HeadSet says

The bromide of "Inflation is caused by greedy corporations price gouging" is great politics. It appeals to adolescents of all ages who think wealth just exists and there is a distribution problem caused by greed, like a kid who sulks his parents will not buy him an upscale gaming console when he knows they make thousands of dollars every month. "Price gouging" also works for the Dems in that the Dems can selectively apply the fix. That is, big donor Tyson would not be accused of gouging but a competitor to Tyson who does not donate to or support Dems would be raided.

it is greedy corporations with monopolistic tendencies. i’m not blanketing every corporation. but there’s plenty of assholes there colluding and manipulating. either way, price controls have no place in America. we need monopolies broken up and end of perpetual bank and military industrial complex welfare. everyone on the handout. 35 trillion debt… fucking nuts.

FortwayeAsFuckJoeBiden says

it is greedy corporations

Everyone wants to sell their product or labor for the max they can get.

Is it greedy workers who want higher wages?
Is it greedy counties who keep increasing assessments and taxes?
Is it greedy farmers who want more for their crops?

Inflation has only one cause - the over printing of money. Although price fixing and corruption need to be dealt with, they do not cause a rising of prices across the board.

HeadSet says

FortwayeAsFuckJoeBiden says

it is greedy corporations

Everyone wants to sell their product or labor for the max they can get.

Is it greedy workers who want higher wages?
Is it greedy counties who keep increasing assessments and taxes?
Is it greedy farmers who want more for their crops?

Inflation has only one cause - the over printing of money. Although price fixing and corruption need to be dealt with, they do not cause a rising of prices across the board.

if you read the bible you’ll know what is profit vs greed formula is my friend. profit isn’t evil or bad in itself.

DemocratsAreTotallyFucked says

Nah. Hot women will be taken care of by the Commissars.

HeadSet says

DemocratsAreTotallyFucked says

Nah. Hot women will be taken care of by the Commissars.

Then murdered or pimped, like Beria was known for abducting pretty girls off the streets of Moscow.

FortwayeAsFuckJoeBiden says

HeadSet says

FortwayeAsFuckJoeBiden says

it is greedy corporations

Everyone wants to sell their product or labor for the max they can get.

Is it greedy workers who want higher wages?
Is it greedy counties who keep increasing assessments and taxes?
Is it greedy farmers who want more for their crops?

Inflation has only one cause - the over printing of money. Although price fixing and corruption need to be dealt with, they do not cause a rising of prices across the board.

if you read the bible you’ll know what is profit vs greed formula is my friend. profit isn’t evil or bad in itself.

The key is maintaining lively competition. Government and government license requirements are by definition monopolies / oligopolies. The city I'm in just raised property tax (i.e. land rent) by 16+% in one year! Far higher percentage than competitive landlords in the same area have.

HeadSet says

The bromide of "Inflation is caused by greedy corporations price gouging" is great politics. It appeals to adolescents of all ages who think wealth just exists and there is a distribution problem caused by greed, like a kid who sulks his parents will not buy him an upscale gaming console when he knows they make thousands of dollars every month. "Price gouging" also works for the Dems in that the Dems can selectively apply the fix. That is, big donor Tyson would not be accused of gouging but a competitor to Tyson who does not donate to or support Dems would be raided.

Exactly! Furthermore, government intervention in this case is collecting a political rent / service fee for enabling Tyson "price gouging" consumers by eliminating competitors to Tyson.

HeadSet says

Hot women will be taken care of by the Commissars.

Nah, most Commissars are gay.

https://www.public.news/p/dark-cynicism-behind-kamala-harris

Many swing voters don’t understand supply and demand very well and often gravitate to highly simplistic solutions. Price controls are more direct and simpler than expanding supply to lower prices.

HeadSet says

FortwayeAsFuckJoeBiden says

it is greedy corporations

Everyone wants to sell their product or labor for the max they can get.

Is it greedy workers who want higher wages?
Is it greedy counties who keep increasing assessments and taxes?
Is it greedy farmers who want more for their crops?

Inflation has only one cause - the over printing of money. Although price fixing and corruption need to be dealt with, they do not cause a rising of prices across the board.

I think you’re missing his point. Btw, what do you call forcing everyone to purchase health insurance?

DemocratsAreTotallyFucked says

Robert Sterling
@RobertMSterling

People need to stop overreacting about Kamala’s plan to reduce food inflation, as if it would lead to communism, mass starvation, and the end of America.

I worked in M&A in the food industry. Here’s a step-by-step summary of what would actually happen:

1. The government announces that grocery retailers aren’t allowed to raise prices.

2. Grocery stores, which operate on 1-2% net margins, can’t survive if their suppliers raise prices. So the government announces that food producers (Kraft Heinz, ConAgra, Tyson, Hormel, et. al.) also aren’t allowed to raise prices.

3. Not all grocery stores are created equal. Stores in lower-income areas make less money than those in higher-income areas, as the former disproportionately sell lower-margin prepackaged foods (“center of the store”) instead of higher-margin fresh products like meat (“perimeter of the store”). Because stores in lower-income areas aren’t able to cover overhead (remember, even if their wholesale costs are fixed, their labor, utilities, insurance, and other operating expenses aren’t fixed… yet), grocery chains start to shut them down. Food deserts in rural areas and in low-income urban areas alike become worse.

4. Meanwhile, margins for food producers are also quickly eroding. Their primary costs (ingredients, energy, and labor) aren’t fixed, and their shrinking gross profits leave less cash flow available to cover overhead, maintain facilities, and reinvest in additional production capacity.

5. Grocery chains, which have finite shelf space, start to repurpose their stores (those they didn’t have to shut down, I should say) to sell more non-price-controlled items—everything from nutrition supplements to kitchenware to apparel—and less price-controlled food products. Your local Kroger or Safeway starts to look and feel more like a Walmart.

6. Food producers stop making products with lower margins. Grocery chain start competing with each other to secure inventory. Since they can’t compete by offering stronger prices (remember, producers aren’t allowed to raise prices here, and, even if they could, grocery chains no longer have the gross profit to bear price increases), they compete on things like payment terms.

7. Small grocery chains start to shut down entirely, or get sold to larger chains like Kroger. In addition to not being able to cover fixed costs, a major reason for this is because they can no longer reliably secure delivery of products, due to producers prioritizing sales to larger customers, which are able to leverage their stronger balance sheets to offer superior payment terms.

8. Smaller food producers—which typically sell via distributors, rather than directly to grocery chains—start to go out of business. Because these producers have an additional step their value chains, and because they have lower volumes over which to spread their fixed costs, their cost structure is inherently disadvantaged compared to major food producers. When grocery stores aren’t able to raise prices, cutting product costs becomes all the more important, and deprioritizing purchases from smaller producers is an easy way to do so.

9. As supply chains break down, lines start to form outside grocery stores every morning. Cities assign police officers to patrol store parking lots, and food producers draft contingency plans to assign armed escorts to delivery trucks.

10. The federal government announces a program to issue block grants for states to purchase and operate shuttered grocery stores. The USDA also seizes closed-down production facilities.

11. The government announces that prices for all key food costs—corn, wheat, cattle, energy, etc.—are also now fixed, to stop “profiteers” from gouging the now-government-operated food industry.

12. Shockingly, the government struggles to operate one of the most complex industries on the planet. The entire food supply chain starts imploding.

13. Communism, mass starvation, and the end of America quickly ensue.

Hey wait a second



https://x.com/RobertMSterling/status/1824840348008391127

Kamala is dangerously clueless.

Commies created the inflation for the last 4 years, now they want to "fix" it for the next 4 years! This is part of the economic death trap.
This is how mass illusion cycle works!
I still remember, heard the same slogans when I was young elsewhere on one of the local political campaign by left/communists only to bring in more misery, poverty, no law and order, ultimately disintegrate society with perpetual chaos.
Hope people realize and not elect Commie Comrade Kamala!

DemocratsAreTotallyFucked says

I worked in M&A in the food industry. Here’s a step-by-step summary of what would actually happen:

How does all the shrinkflation figure into all of this? I am including things like watering down ingredients or using sawdust, etc.
No mention of rationing, as clearly that would also happen?

Blue says

Commies created the inflation for the last 4 years, now they want to "fix" it for the next 4 years! This is part of the economic death trap.
This is how mass illusion cycle works!

Did you just call Trump a Commie? Because at least half of $4T doled out "to help the people" is on him.

DemocratsAreTotallyFucked says

Not all grocery stores are created equal.

Correct, Big donors like Walmart would get exemptions, just like when Walmart stayed open during the plandemic while many of its smaller competitors wore forced to close.

RWSGFY says

Did you just call Trump a Commie? Because at least half of $4T doled out "to help the people" is on him.

Yes, for fairness, though less in magnitude, if that number was correct.

Blue says

Commies created the inflation for the last 4 years, now they want to "fix" it for the next 4 years! This is part of the economic death trap.
This is how mass illusion cycle works!
I still remember, heard the same slogans when I was young elsewhere on one of the local political campaign by left/communists only to bring in more misery, poverty, no law and order, ultimately disintegrate society with perpetual chaos.
Hope people realize and not elect Commie Comrade Kamala!

last 4? trump signed every spending inflationary bill too. it’s not one sided fault.

Blue says

RWSGFY says

Did you just call Trump a Commie? Because at least half of $4T doled out "to help the people" is on him.

Yes, for fairness, though less in magnitude, if that number was correct.

It is. Trump signed $2.1T spending bill and Potato followed with $1.9T version.

And congress passed it.