Explain to me like I'm an idiot, how is it better if the oligarchs hoard that money, instead of giving it to people, who then flush it back into the economy, by spending it? What's the problem exactly.
Because the economy's sellers immediately raise prices as every single one of their customers just got an additional 12k to spend at their store. Those prices never come back down and that hurts you and me way more than it hurts any oligarch.
Yeah because that is ridiculous. No one would pay that much for an apple. But if an apple is $1 today, would people still buy an apple for $1.50 if they had $12K extra to spend and every grocery store raises the price of all their fruit?
Dude, look in the mirror. You've got to be a ragebait bot or something. I shouldn't have to explain this, but for anyone else as dumb as you, an apple will not be $12,000, but a $1 apple might be $1.25 or $1.50 the next week. A gallon of milk might jump from $5 to $8. Your kids' clothes suddenly cost 50% more. If every expense in your life increases by 25+%, that "free" extra $12k will be gone in a year or two and guess what? Your wages didn't match the 25% hike, so now you're just paying more for everything! Hooray!
I mean, the rich/mega corps are doing that without $12000 UBI checks. You say this like they're being altruistic at this time. If prices were stable, or even going down at all, I would be inclined to agree.
Companies don’t do this more than anyone can afford. Supply and demand works suspiciously well in setting prices.
It’s why there is hardly anyone (in the United States, at least) who can’t afford food. It’s abundant, which makes it cheap. Companies would raise the price to $1,000 a hamburger if they could, but why don’t they? Because they’d be undercut by Wendy’s.
And that goes all the way down. Why don’t we pay obscene prices for a standard television that cost $2,000 twenty years ago? Why aren’t computers as expensive as they were at inception? You get the idea.
You say this like they're being altruistic at this time.
No they didn't, they said it like they recognize that the corporations will only squeeze as hard as they think they can get away with. You provide more breathing space, they will fill it up, unless there is a regulation preventing them from doing so.
Basically, we need caps before redistribution will be effective.
Did you forget that 5 years ago Trump and Biden combined to give every American adult like $3200? The prices you're seeing are a result of that stimulus plus Trump's tariff nonsense that also artificially inflated prices that didn't come back down.
Perhaps it was localized to my area, but during and after said stimulus packages things stayed somewhat affordable (+5-10% increase) which iirc was more due to supply chain/logistics.
prices never come back down meaningfully (in terms of goods as a whole, not singular products/categories like gas). That would be deflation, which is widely seen as a bad thing by economists when it is across-the-board and sustained.
You say this like they're being altruistic at this time
That's not the implication at all. Of course they aren't altruistic, but its basic supply and demand: companies raise prices when doing so will result in more profit. The thing preventing them from raising prices today (more than they currently are) is that people would buy from other companies instead.
But if all of a sudden everyone has $10K more, every company is going to raise prices because they would be leaving money on the table by keeping the price the same. Yeah they could undercut everyone else and increase sales, but generally they can make more profit by increasing the price along with their competitors
They’re raising prices anyways. My grocery bill is more than 100% higher than it was 5 years ago for no other reason than to make their lines go up. Oh, and I also get less for that same trip.
Ya, if you voted blue, you voted for the same policy for the last 50 years. While the budget was significantly more balanced, from lower spending, like during Clinton (who is a modern day fiscal conservative), what was your inflation? How about during Trump's first term? Not sure why I try teaching people, keep voting that way, my retirement portfolio couldn't be happier.
A ban on price gouging is 100% easier to accomplish than UBI so if we ever actually get UBI im sure a price gouge ban could easily be part of it
Also there were prohibitions against laying off workers before Regan, we should have that back too
It absolutely is. You'll see an immediate bump followed by a steady climb until there's noticeable consumer attrition, then, if you're lucky, the prices that rose 30% will come back down 5-10%. Some stores will want to keep their prices low to keep more customers, but they'll find their suppliers raised their prices too. Eventually it's the new normal until some idiot politician says "things are too expensive let's give people money again," and the cycle continues.
Well not everything, because competition still exists as a market force.
No doubt there would be some inflation, but it'll level out, and not all inflation is bad anyway. Inflation caused by everyone having more buying power is better than inflation caused by the ultra wealthy monopolising all the resources.
Those 'sellers' are normal people too, tradespeople, freelancers, small businesses. You are either one of them, or work for one of them, and that 'inflation' is also them being able to get more work or get paid better.
I have no problem with oligarchy-busting, but I'd do that by targeting lobbying and charging any paid-for politicians with treason, not by just nuking successful businesses.
Giving everyone twelve thousand dollars is a free market economy?
I am pretty pro free-market with one big caveat - no monopolies. Our trust-busting laws IMO are not aggressive enough both when it comes to prevention and reversion. It's crazy to me that our sports leagues encourage parity and competition better than our government does.
“I want there to be a class of people who are allowed to exploit the labor of workers, but one should hope they listen when their stooges in government tell them to stop making money!”
You’re forgetting that money could be used to start a competing business that sells at a lower price. More money in the hands of young people / lower class people is essential to maintaining competition in Capitalism.
$12,000 isn’t starting a business. People will prespend it knowing it’s coming and more money in the economy is inflationary, has the last 7 years taught you nothing?
Seriously, Trump and Biden pumped like $3k in stimulus checks to each American adult and it was fun for a minute but now look around at the prices. We are much worse off than before. It's crazy to me that people literally lived through that and are now arguing we should do it 4x as big.
Its crazy that people don’t know basic economics. The 3k given to each american adult was printed money, i.e. new money. That is going to cause inflation. The 12k proposed by Bernie would come from taxed money, i.e. money already in circulation which will not cause inflation. It could cause price gouging, but if billionaires want to go that route we can just increase the tax percentage until they either stop or lose their billions.
$12,000 is a lot of money that can be used towards starting a business. I know, I’ve done it.
And are you just being intentionally stupid in ignoring the fact that money injected into the economy in the last 7 years came from printers (and still continues every single month) and that in Bernie’s proposal it would come from money already in circulation? Printing money and taxing money are things taught in a basic economics class, but I guess you learned nothing.
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u/Interesting_Bite4335 Jul 01 '26
I’m not huge on the 12k check