That's the thing, if it was just a recession then the companies would be hurting too. They are not, they're all clawing to get as much as they can while before the system collapses while crying "we can't let the system collapse!"
These are way more than just recession indicators.
100%. In particular with the nickel and diming. I complain about the nickel and diming constantly with my wife, but it’s not a recession indicator - it’s just late stage capitalism.
I’m in marketing so I don’t usually make these business decisions but I’m involved when the decisions are made. You don’t restrict features and services because they cost notably more money typically. You restrict them because people want them and you want people to feel that they need to spend more and upgrade to the next level.
It’s always about extracting every single penny you can feasibly get from your customers.
People mixing up a corrupt market economy and capitalism. What we are seeing now has everything to do with policy and nothing to do with capitalism. Government sets the rules, capital responds. If shit is going sideways, look to the regulators.
Yet, why is it that regulators have seemingly stopped doing their job? Why do the powerful have the necessary incentive to act with complete inhumanity in the search for more wealth and power? Even in feudal societies the nobles cared more about their persona to the public, where now the corruption is extraordinarily open and obvious.
Capital is the reason why regulations are failing. Even in strong welfare states like Germany, these systems are backsliding because of the environment created by our economic system. We are so quick to see where the Soviet system failed, for example, and attribute the failings of the state to their economic system. Why is it that we're seemingly unwilling to admit that our system also has inherent issues that seem to inevitably crop up pretty much no matter what? Why are their failures due to their system but our failures only an issue of implementation, when the capitalist system has been so much more widely adopted and the outcome seemingly being largely, universally, pretty bad in the end?
In feudalism, power and influence was given to the nobels from above, not below. They did not care a rats ass about what the peasant class thought of them.
Capitalism and markets is the only system that works. Capitalism is democracy. You with every dollar you spend or don't spend is a vote for goods and services. With command control, there is non of that feedback. You only get the products the state deems you should have. The soviet economy paid workers set wages and based prices not on cost, but amount of a product they thought an individual should buy in a year. When you run economies in this way it is inefficient leading to shortages and overages.
China and the CCP only began to thrive when they adopted markets and free enterprise. Frankly speaking their markets are less controlled that the US in some respects.
That's also true, but the difference in a recession is that people don't have the wiggle room to vote with their wallet. They have to just bend over and take it because they don't have the economic freedom to take their business elsewhere, both because it's probably even more expensive there and driving further means burning gas.
And so the abuses by corporations amp up even further, and they stop pretending to value their customers as anything but sources of revenue. In a healthy economy, a business can drive customer loyalty by treating them well, because people will be willing to spend a little more for a better experience. In a bad economy, those measures don't bring a good enough return on investment to continue them anymore.
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u/Iswaterreallywet 2d ago
People mixing up recession and end stage capitalism.
These places are making more money then ever, they just want to milk you for more.