https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-01/top-fertilizer-producer-sees-massive-price-surge-continuing
It's okay I've been stockpiling tons of fertilizer and studying math for some time now.
Why isnt the whole food chain just owned by the public? The food/produce supply chain is one of those things that should DEFINITELY be owned by the public not up for private profits
Why isnt the whole food chain just owned by the public?
Given the degree to which we subsidize it, might as well be.
But Wall Street demands a fat slice, and Iowa Oligarchs aren't going to pick the next President for free, so...
This inflation rate is tame and predicted to decline as the ports unbottleneck themselves.
If it gets seriously out of control, we'll just do another Volcker Shock and deliberately crash the economy, like we did back in the 80s.
Since we're the premier dominant post-war economy with no discernible competition and no serious risk of domestic insurrection, this should go smoothly and will definitely have no second-order consequences.
Every new cycle degrades the authority enjoyed by the administration. Undoubtedly, the Fed Money Printers will spin and the banks will snatch up real estate and IP with a fresh influx of new currency. But consolidation ultimately degrades the legitimacy of capitalism as an institution. As fewer and fewer people own real property, the popular incentive to defend the system is lost.
What comes next is then the open question.
Gas going from $3/gallon to $5/gallon is tame? I don’t think so — I don’t get how someone could think so.
Gas has been bouncing between $2-5 for the last thirty years. We don't gabble on about deflation when it dips.
Maybe not but when it increases 60% and the cost of everything else goes up at the same time that’s a good time to talk about inflation. The notion that I didn’t gabble about deflation is meaningless to me when facing high prices — also, even when gas prices were going down, rents were going up so inflation was still pretty annoying in those downswings.
I’m only talking about the last decade or so.
The notion that I didn’t gabble about deflation is meaningless to me when facing high prices
Price of Thing Go Up: "This is inflation and we have to do something about inflation!"
Price of Thing Go Down: <crickets>
American consumer goods are crazy under-priced and have been since Deindustrialization. Cheap consumer goods are what made wage stagnation bearable. Now even a single item with a high spoilage rate experiencing a short term price increase causes people to freak out.
also, even when gas prices were going down, rents were going up
Rents continue to be dirt cheap out in the boonies, as they always have. When gas prices went up, people moved into the cities to cut the cost of commuting. Now housing prices are up and rents are down, because people have been buying rather than renting. Cyclical pricing is cyclical. Zillow's about to flood the market with all the homes they gobbled up in excitement over the real estate price boom. Will we be hearing about falling housing prices in the next few months or will we focus myopically on the rising price of Next Thing?
People enjoy a windfall. When prices go down, that puts people in a good mood and they don't complain. Maybe it's hypocritical, but I don't see it as excusing / a rationale for being ok with inflation.
Seems speculative, predictions about the real estate prices dropping. I'd love to hear about falling house prices, but they'd have to fall quite a lot to undo the rises we've seen in the past decade. It's not been my perception that more people are buying instead of renting now -- I think buying is an option for fewer and fewer people each year. idk if housing prices fall but something else gets more expensive we'll probably be talking about that, yeah.
In Houston, when gas prices go up everyone complains about the price of gas. And when gas prices go down, everyone complains about unemployment.
I’d love to hear about falling house prices, but they’d have to fall quite a lot to undo the rises we’ve seen in the past decade.
People like to focus on a handful of crazy housing markets in big tech centers. But you can see the rise-and-fall happening in the wake of 2008 pretty clearly. Florida homes that were jacked up to $500k crashed back down into the low $100ks. Las Vegas and Phoenix went through the same boom-bust.
I doubt Zillow is going to nuke the whole market, but simply because they're not gobbling up homes with abandon that'll take air out.
Since we’re the premier dominant post-war economy with no discernible competition and no serious risk of domestic insurrection, this should go smoothly and will definitely have no second-order consequences
:side-eye-2:
Fuck is that why we've had every NATO-aligned ghoul gunning for Belarus for the past year?
Finally some good news. Widespread hunger and the resultant massive unrest is literally the only thing that even has a chance of making good things happen in America.
Finally some good news. Widespread hunger
This is why accelerationism doesn't find purchase.
People are gonna be killed by the violence inherent in the status quo, or they're gonna be killed in the fight to break the status quo. The suffering and death are unavoidable.
Also, accelerationism is a meme. The acceleration is happening whether you want it to or not
One can acknowledge all that without going "good news, everyone! More starvation!"
My reaction to this news story has no impact on anyone's life. It literally doesn't matter at all
It's just bizarre to me as someone who came to leftist thought because I want to minimize suffering to see others celebrating additional suffering. I'm aware that neither of our posts are impactful.
A revolution absolutely would minimize suffering though, regardless of how it comes about. I don't see how you can think us trundling along doing as we're doing now somehow means less suffering
You mean a revolution that ends with your ideal outcome.
"A revolution" that happens now or in the near future is probably going to not be that. It's probably going to end up with the fascists empowered.
Either the status quo holds and we all die to climate change, or things collapse, the fascists take charge and we all die from climate change. Either way we’re boned. At least with collapse or decline there’s a chance that the left becomes stronger. I don’t blame people for cheering on collapse, it’s basically the only way things will change at this point.
What if the good thing that you obviously have in mind is bad? Hmmm what then????
The cool thing about accelerationism is it happens whether you support the idea or not.
No no no. I have rising blood pressure because of fucking inflation and how expensive everything is getting. It’s killing me.
I used up my weekly quota on the manhole story yesterday. :sadness:
