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" Cutting off oil pipeline supply from Canada January 20, 2021 replacing with more expensive overseas oil. Trucking and production of goods depends on oil.
" Increased wages of retail workers demands. Justly fair to maintain reasonable standard of living or excessive, unsure? Teenage spending money wage for nice extras or higher wages to support a family?
* Immigration, legal and illegal, increasing demand and supply cannot keep up. Immigration has pushed prices up for decades, but worse in last year.
" Corporate executives paid on average many more times than workers than decades ago. Stockholders profit at expense of workers and customers. Some sort of morality problem here.
Other causes? Other thoughts? Affecting our bottom line pocketbooks.
That Keystone Pipeline was not carrying any crude oil at the time it was cancelled -- so the fluctuations in gas prices were not caused by a single pipeline. Also, the millions of hard-working Americans that Sean Hannity says were thrown out of their jobs -- was shown to be less than 10,000 non-permanent jobs. The completed pipeline would have employed about 100 full timers -- half of them Canadians.
BTW -- Current pipeline capacity utilization is around 50% The Rig Count is down too
So why is the gas price rising again ??
Retail workers make about $14 per hour. On a 30 hour week (most are not full timers) that's a whopping $400 before any deductions. Try living on 2 grand a month, with zero benefits.
There were about 20 Million immigrants trying to enter the county, many are turned away. There are 330 million citizens in the USA. If those immigrants are pushing your prices up....you're probably in bigger trouble than even you imagined.
The highest Inflation categories were Housing, Meat and Produce Prices, and Energy.
Are all your Illegal Immigrants driving up Housing Prices ??
Did the Beef Cattle all go on strike ?? Are they stuck on a slow boat from China ??
Are chickens picketing ?? Who is picking the Vegetables lately ??
Stop importing everything from China. They can't get it off the docks.....it's all cheap crap anyway. Manufacture it in Mexico and with jobs there, maybe you can reduce the Immigration statistics too.
It seems to be a mix of issues so you can pick the one or ones that fit your politics and claim they are the sole cause(s).
People not wanting to work anymore and resulting supply and shipping, warehousing and retail shortages.
Government printing money and handing it out left and right (which enabled some of the younger people who hate working to stay home for a year or two), but which also drives up inflation.
Government policies the result in reduced production of commodities or reduced availability of commodities.
Covid impacts on worker availability, supply chain and production.
People working less efficiently or less diligently due to general dissatisfaction with wages and/or income disparity.
General ennui and malaise that seems to be sweeping the nation and maybe the world.
Politician and media driven fear mongering, hate mongering and decisiveness and the resulting emotional exhaustion of people (possible resulting in the general ennui and malaise mentioned above.
Personally I think many older people are realizing that the general quality of life int he USA ids declining and they want to get out and retired before the good times are gone. retirement is weakening. I look at my Daad's generation and they were retiring in their late 50s and able to live comfortably. My generation is looking at working until 70 and then probably not having enough to cover retirement (at least according to financial advisors). The medical system int he US is collapsing rapidly. travel is getting more and more restrictive and more and more unpleasant, but also more expensive. I think, although I am unsure that my generation is looking at a lot more heath issues in retirement than my Dad's generation because the majority of us are out of shape and obese. People are becoming less and less social as internet takes the place of interpersonal relationships and both fear of disease and the hyper fueled hate mongering especially about politics make socializing less pleasant and even dangerous. Service clubs, social clubs and religion are dying out. Family is greatly weakened or even broken and few kids feel interested or obligated to spend time with or take care of their parents. society promotes this more and more is it is getting worse. Not to mentioned the politically fueled hate tends to divide families along generational lines. social security is running out of money and both social security and 401k will be taxed/reduced more and more int he coming years.
two years ago I planned to retire in 2031 and I was happy about that. Now, I want to retire as soon as practical, probaby sooner than is really prectical according to financial advisors (since they say I need to work until I am 97 to be ready to retire).
I think this will continue indefinitely. Many of the young people I know have not intention of going back to work except tot he extent they must to survive. they are not really interested in trying to get ahead or they see it as impossible so why bother Many late 50s and early 60s friends are planning to take medical disability or just retire now or soon and make do as best they can. Many moms are desperately seeking a way to reduce or eliminate work demands so they can focus on their kids - not necessarily wanting to quit working, but seeking reduced hours or less stressful/demanding jobs.
All sorts of experts can opine with "science" to back them up that it is any of these things or some and not others or none of them, or only one of them. It is easy when no one really knows and when the truth is probably a combination fo all of them to varying extents. So, take your pick. The cause can be whatever you want it to be. whatever fits your worldview and political agenda. You won't be wrong..
Inflation, as Gwoodle pointed out - is not some "opinion" but the actual result of extra money / shortage of goods. This doesn't imply that you - personally - have more money - maybe the price of something else went down - so, in that regard, you DO have more money - so, in the end, to simplify greatly - too much money, too few goods.
Several of the OP ideas are the opposite of that. You might think that higher pay to entry level positions is "more money" - but it really is not - it's "less money" from the employers' perspective. It's scarcity - real or perceived - that pushes prices up.
Corporate executives paid on average many more times than workers than decades ago.
So what? The very mechanism that raises the pay of executives is the SAME mechanism that allows your 401K (or any other investment) to grow so that when you retire - it's many times what you put into it. Now, zero hasn't moved for a few eons, so those with zero times zero still have zero. So the spread from the bottom (Zero) to the top (whatever it is now - plus interest - every year) will grow and grow and grow. That will never change. Simple math.
In 1950 the CEO of GM made about $620,000, while the average assembler made $3300.
That's, uh, lessee...nearly 200x the avg employee. Last year, the CEO of GM made $20,000,000...while many, many MANY employees of GM cleared $100,000...200x.
So the blanket statement is incorrect - it's a silly thing to pin your anger on. True in some cases, not in others - but regardless of whether or not you agree with me, there is THIS fact:
If you removed the top 50 COMBINED World Wide CEO Salaries - it would be about 5 billion dollars.
5 billion dollars - or about what the Federal gov't spent since I got up this morning. You think THAT is what's keeping the "every day guy" from getting somewhere?
5 billion..about $15 a person (USA). So if we all sent in $15...an overpayment on your tax this year (feel free) - then all our problems would be solved, right? No.
The money supply has kept going way up. That money then hits the banks. What do the banks do? They lend money for real estate, vehicles, and college. Guess what has gone up in price the most. Housing, vehicles, and college.
The money supply has kept going way up. That money then hits the banks. What do the banks do? They lend money for real estate, vehicles, and college. Guess what has gone up in price the most. Housing, vehicles, and college.
By including 'college' in your diatribe, you've lost the argument. In point of fact, College Costs have increased at less than the inflation rate in recent years -- 1.6% for In-state and 2.1% for Private schools. College costs have always gone up, yet folks will always go on to college. This is simple Supply and Demand equation moving the cost higher.
Real Estate Sales using all Cash Financing is rising to about 30% of all transactions. Banks are not making huge profits from long term mortgages -- at around 3% that's barely break even. Their profits are made with up-front charges like points and fees.
Vehicles can now be purchase with zero percent financing. Even high-dollar brands like Lexus offer 1% money to 'qualified' buyers (big down payment buyers).
The Money Supply is expanding, no question. But so is the Economy. More folks are employed and seeking goods and services. Supply Chain issues should be a bigger concern. News Reports that stores are just now getting in their Christmas Orders and having to sell these goods at a steep discount. That is sunk cost to the
retailer, who has to malke it up somewhere else in the store.
Well, I would agree with this if we really had a free market. The trouble is, those who are already wealthier than the other 99.9% of us can buy legislation to ensure that they keep and even increase their share of the wealth. A good example of this discrepancy is the way capital gains are taxed vs. earned income. Why should someone whose money came from a play in the stock market get a break over someone who mops floors or slaughters chickens for a living? Yes, those who are smart and resourceful deserve to be rewarded, but those rewards can't be infinite to have a functioning society. The money was made on the labor of people who deserve a shot at a decent life, not to be ground down by the uber-rich. Wealth and opportunity inequality have pretty much killed the American dream.
61% of the people in this country pay 0 federal income taxes. Those aren't the wealthy people.
The article mentions the richest 25 individuals, but applies to many more very wealthy people and corporations who pay very low or no taxes. We could have a solvent government and health care system if the ultra wealthy paid their fair share. Instead they drive down wages to the point where you and I (I'm presuming you are a member of the middle class) are subsidizing the lowest paid workers.
It is not logical to point to the poor and immigrants as the cause of our problems! Poor people do not have the financial resources needed to buy favorable legislation. The ultra-rich individuals and megacorporations do. That's why our tax code is such a complicated mess.
61% of the people in this country pay 0 federal income taxes. Those aren't the wealthy people.
A very Foxy statistic if ever there was one. It's 61% of all households. And it ignores the fact that 20 million Americans were thrown out of work by a Pandemic in 2020, increasing the 60% figure greatly. And the Stimulus Checks and the Child Tax Credits offset any taxes these households would have owed.
It's also pretty nervy of these '61 percenters' to make less than $55K per year....try to raise a family on 1000 bucks a week, before any Deductions and Medical Insurance.
About 99.9% of households in the lowest quintile — those making below $28,000 — will effectively pay no federal income taxes in 2021. Around 75% of households in the second quintile — those families making between $28,000 and $55,000 — also won’t pay any taxes for the 2021 tax year.
While those households paid no federal income taxes and potentially little to no state income taxes in 2020, the majority of U.S. households pay other taxes.
Nearly 80% of U.S. households paid either federal income taxes or payroll taxes in 2020, the report found.
Additionally, many people are subject to state and local sales taxes, excise taxes, property taxes, or state income taxes.
Most Experts say the recent increases in U.S. gas prices are due mainly to a lack of oil production, much more than any actions taken by Biden, such as canceling the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
"The pipeline shutdown has absolutely nothing to do with gas prices," said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy. "Prices are higher because production has lagged behind, not because there isn't enough pipeline capacity — there is."
We can add 5.5 million workers leaving the work force and 75% are over 55 and may not be going back to work or going back full time
COVID has caused problems everywhere with worker shortages, restrictions, etc
The pipeline wasn't even operating. It was still under construction, therefore no affect on current oil prices.
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