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Fritzschmied t1_issmeg6 wrote

Why is it normal nowadays that things are getting more expensive with age. That’s such bulshit.

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PussyStapler t1_ist6x7x wrote

I see inflation and increase of costs of components/materials commonly mentioned as causes for increased prices.

Most companies don't base price on what it costs. They base price on what the market will bear. If it costs them $80 to make headphones that sell for $100, and manufacturing costs went up, so it now costs them $90 to make headphones, they will still sell at $100, because that price was presumably optimized for demand and their marginal costs. They just make less money. If they increase price to $110, then they will sell fewer headphones, which could decrease revenue.

If price went up purely due to inflation, then the price would have gone up comparable to inflation, and people probably wouldn't care that much.

They are increasing the price because they have discovered that they will make more revenue at $150 than $100. So if they sell 150 headphones at $100, and 120 headphones at $150, they will make more money at $150. They may also find it's cheaper to make fewer headphones.

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Emergency-Wave-5335 t1_istkob5 wrote

When governments manufacture money out of thin air, inflation is inevitable. That money has to come from somewhere.

If you were paying attention, during 2020-2021 governments said inflation wasn't going to be an issue.

In 2022, we were told that this wasn't inflation, it was just a temporary issue. Then we were told it definitely wasn't inflation, it was just issues with the supply chain. While still maintaining that this is all temporary and prices will come back down.

Now, finally, they respond by hiking interest three times in a row, as priced continue to rise.

nothing to see here. blame the wealthy and the corporations!

This is your governments fault. Wherever you are. The only solution is putting politicians on poles.

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[deleted] t1_issu23p wrote

[deleted]

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BeKind_BeTheChange t1_issuhw3 wrote

It's corporate greed. 100%. There has been no increase in the cost of obtaining raw materials, other than the demand from stockholders to increase profits. The concept of constant growth needs to be called out for the unsustainable scam that it is.

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broodmance t1_isswc2y wrote

While I don’t disagree that corporate greed and corruption plays a part, claiming raw material cost have not increased is factually incorrect. I work in procurement/supply chain. You would be shocked at how much various raw material has increased in price over the last few years. Some of it is the rarity of certain metals and other Covid related issues. Others I’m sure is other companies gouging us.

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GenericHuman-9 t1_issz9rj wrote

Yup! I work in manufacturing of servers and NAS systems and there has been significant delays on many different parts due to worldwide shortages. It’s been going on for 2 years and will continue until at least mid 2023.

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twerkallknight t1_issx24r wrote

There has been an absolutely massive increase in the cost of obtaining raw materials. Also, containers cost 4-5x as much as they cost 2 years ago.

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Bafw t1_isszlda wrote

You are actually incorrect. Container costs have been dropping rapidly on most routes. Many are on late 2020 levels.

Source

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twerkallknight t1_istn3cd wrote

I work for one of the largest import brand in the US. We still have freight surcharges on all goods because of how expensive containers are for us. Your source literally shows how expensive costs got. The person I was responding to said there had been no cogs increases.

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rosesandtherest t1_isswek3 wrote

Technically l, if inflation is 20% and corporations report 20% earnings growth, they’re on break even by buying power despite record profits.

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doctorweiwei t1_issxq5f wrote

The goal of the corporation is always to maximize profits. The notion that randomly in the past few years corporations got more “greedy” is hilarious. It’s just a politician talking point to deflect away from the economical context they set up

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morganj955 t1_ist86m9 wrote

Inflation is not a cause of price increases. It is just the symptom of price increases.

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