“Easy Peasy”: Economists Recommend You Should Start Making An Extra $5200 Due To Rising Costs, Here Are The Best Reactions From The Internet
It’s not just you who recently realized you can barely afford a regular frappe with almond milk. Or a lemon Perrier six pack that instantly makes you feel more French. But hey, we can totally live without that, right? But the prices of basic goods are rising at the pace of a hadron collider (gas, anyone?!) and at this point, it’s just a question of weeks if not days to a generously downsized grocery bag.
$5200. That’s how much money we all need to “add to our budget” a year to make up for the inflation, according to Bloomberg economists. About $2,200 of that inflation tax will come from pricier food and energy, they added. And that, ladies and gents, boils down to an extra $433 per month on the same goods and services as last year.
As you can suspect, the headline went viral on social media and in no time, sarcastic reactions flooded Twitter. “Should that come out of my caviar budget, or should I downsize my yacht?” tweeted David Kaib. Another person suggested “making the third home a rental property.”
Meanwhile, another set of news broke that corporations reported record profits, making 2021 their best year since 1950. So I just leave the stage to people on Twitter from this point.
Bloomberg economists reported that Americans should budget an extra $5,200 this year to cover rising prices, making basically everyone raise their eyebrows
Image credits: Alexander Mils
INSIDER quoted Bloomberg economists Andrew Husby and Anna Wong who said that in a Tuesday article that went viral on Twitter
Bloomberg economists Andrew Husby and Anna Wong calculated that the red-hot inflation expected to last throughout the year will leave the average US household spending $5,200 more compared to the year prior. They commented: “Accelerated depletion of savings will increase the urgency for those staying on the sidelines to join the labor force, and the resulting increase in labor supply will likely dampen wage growth,” they said.
Image credits: JoshuaPotash
According to Business Insider, “as people spend their built-up savings, they’ll need to go back to work, and employers won’t have to pay as much to lure them back.”
But while many American households are already worrying about how they’re going to afford basic things, like fuel, heating and groceries throughout the inflation, major U.S. corporations can’t relate whatsoever. More so, they seem to be riding out the fiercest inflation in 40 years like a walk in the park.
Simultaneously, another news headline broke saying that US corporations saw record profits and that 2021 was the best year for them since 1950
CBSNews pointed out recently that while CEOs spent much of 2021 pointing to the impact of rising wages, pricier raw materials and other ballooning expenses on their companies’ performance, new data from the Commerce Department show that corporate profit margins are the largest they’ve been in 70 years.
Isabella Weber, a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, told in an interview for NPR that companies always want to maximize profits. “In the current context, they suddenly cannot deliver as much anymore as they used to. And this creates an opening where they can say, well, we are facing increasing costs. We are facing all these issues. So we can explain to our customers that we are raising our prices,” she said. However, no one knows exactly how much these prices should be increased.
This didn’t sit well with people on Twitter who wasted no time sharing some very sarcastic reactions
Image credits: Public_Citizen
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Moreover, Weber argues that as a matter of fact, “what we have seen is that profits are skyrocketing, which means that companies have increased prices by more than cost. In the earnings reports, companies have bragged about how they have managed to be ahead of the inflation curve, how they have managed to jack up prices more than their costs and as a result have delivered these record profits.”
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Share on FacebookCorporations are choosing to raise prices. Corporations are choosing not to pay their workers more. The US President doesn't control gas prices in the US, let alone in other nations. Blame corporations and then maybe learn some things about the dark side of capitalism.
What's more interesting is they have really gotten the middle and lower middle class to buy into this. The whole "embarrassed millionaire" syndrome is rampant. Look at Alabama: they voted against union at Amazon. They basically have so fine tuned the art of foot shooting it's amazing.
Load More Replies...I knew Americans had it bad, but I did not realize how bad. For comparison, I have a pretty standard job with a pretty standard salary. My savings are not that great, because since I lost my fixed job in 2017 I only had short term contracts with month long gaps in-between. Still...according to that graphic I would be in the top 10%. What the hell? Of course I've heard about student debt, insane medical bills, minimal wage jobs etc. But for some reason it never clicked in my brain that all this together means that you will not have any savings, like ever. It's quite shocking, to be honest.
To add a little to the healthcare side of that, many Americans pay insane premiums for their health insurance, often hundreds per month per member of the household, and that still leaves them with having to pay thousands in deductible before it kicks in and at least 20% of the cost after that. So they can be paying over $1K+ to insure a small family and STILL end up in ruinous debt if they have a major medical issue. When an American states their salary, one thing that is hazy is how much their health insurance costs them. Since we have this weird system that ties our insurance to our employer, it's usually completely opaque what the employer pays for it, but in general higher paid workers also get better plans with higher subsidy. So an engineer making $250K might get a plan where they pay $100/month per person with no deductible and a warehouse worker making $40K might be paying $500/month per person for a plan where they have a $3K+ deductible.
Load More Replies...What I don't get, is that there is still not a revolution going on in the US. Eat the rich!
Because we have been brainwashed into buying the propaganda that the stooges of the 1% spew. Because they know the media they control can easily distract us with celebrity gossip, sports, or the old immigrants-are-after-your-jobs B.S.
Load More Replies...So here's a thought. Any company that increased prices on its goods or services but failed to raise wages for its workers will be taxed at 120% of that increase. The funds will be collected and redistributed to those employees in the form of a stimulus payment. The extra 20% over profit gains is to encourage businesses to do the right thing because we have to teach them that people matter. Attempts to raise the wage of the CEO/ upper management only will incur an additional penalty of 300%.
Bloomberg: Our corporations had such a tremendously profitable year in 2021🤩 Bloomberg: So in order to obtain the insane profits this year we're gonna need America to step up and budget a little extra about $5300 maybe $5500! Bloomberg: An with your help America 2022 will be a wonderful year for us🤑.....all...Us all. Me: F**k you 🖕 Bloomberg!
In a nutshell, don't sleep, don't rest, don't relax, don't eat, don't shower, don't don't don't ----- but I bet my last coin taht the economist makes a s**t-ton of $$$, and, yes, that's a legal measure where I'm from in the US.
We're facing the same situation in the uk, there was a cap on energy, but that's been removed and the price is being raised by 48% this month, with another similar rise expected in October, and petrol is just insane, averaging iut at around £2.00 for a litre, and that's even before you consider the increasing costs of food and other essentials, while supermarkets especially are reporting record profits the past 2 years, but none of this is trickling down to the consumer... it's not sustainable somethings going to give and it's not going to be pretty
Load More Replies...Maybe they are planning to add 2 or 3 more months to the year, that would be completely bill free??? Because that is the only way I would be able to even make that much more to save, without spending a dime of it.
Meanwhile, all of that shoplifting and robbery and break ins in almost every city in America on the rise is due to cityfolk being just too soft on crime. We should punish the poor and downtrodden more often and severely. That'll teach them to choose to be poor and desperate.
IF people were getting the cost of living raises they’re supposed to get every year, maybe things would be different. But 40 years of missed cost of living raises puts us behind the 8 ball. Maybe the corporations who have had such good years lately should retroactively pay us that money. I’m 61, and spent my entire young adulthood without cost of living raises. I’ll take that lump sum.
I feel robbed. My wife and I have a successful pet care business, we work 7 days a week, but we have no savings and will never be able to own a home or retire. Housing and medical costs just keep going up. 35 years ago, my single mother of two was able to afford a home, and has been building equity since then. She sold it in 1989 for $150,000. Two years ago it sold for $812,000. With the same math, the $4.25/hr minimum wage I was making as an 18-year-old should be about $23.00/hr now.
As for Reckless Disco trying to shade Biden. Yes it is an amazing economy.... Best year for business in 70 years. The Trickle Down portion just isn't working too well.
Talk about tone deaf media. Inflation and gas prices make that impossible even for those that could save before. I'm in CA where the minimum wage is $15.00 per hour, ($14 for small co's,) but housing is so expensive you can barely afford to rent or buy. This "saving expectation" that rich people (who watch Bloomberg media,) have no clue how difficult to live, certainly not able to save. Home ownership here requires around a six figure salary (or combined with a partner/spouse.) It's really hard to saving for a down payment.
Wife and I are both looking at how to combat all of this. She wants to be more financially responsible and pick up extra hours. I on the other hand just think its the employers' (as a whole) responsibility to pay a living wage and refuse to give them more of my time than I already do. I guess she's actually making positive changes and I'm just bitching when I put it that way
Don't want to pay what employees need and deserve and don't freeze prices, seems global stupidity.
How can some people be so out of touch, when they know consumers are getting robbed, while corporations get extra profit? I'm about to tear off every "wow," or "woohoo ", sticker off the shelves in grocery stores. It's a huge slap to my face. I shop every week. I am not stupid. I know that price went up. It's not a sale to rejoice in. (Also, when a price goes up due to a short term problem, it never goes back down when the "problem" is gone.)
Just as a random thought...have you seen how nice Danish prisons are?
Jese and I thought my $10k emergency fund was pathetic I had no idea how bad it was out there.
You can make 5k from disability payments if you don’t spend any of it and go into a coma instead 🤔. Don’t worry bros, I have an idea. We’re going to all go drink enough water to drown a fish, get Hyponutremia, and either die or go into a coma for a couple years. It’s a genius plan!
So much for the American Dreams huh!? Anyway, I dont get it, especially with the sarcastical comments (above on BP, not down here). He's just suggesting whats gonna happens, for us to be prepared about it. These r happening all over the world, we hv no choice but to live with it, finding our way around such as reducing our expenditures here n there, finding additional job (or jobs) or other sources of side incomes!?
Oh sure, I could easily conjure up an extra $5.2K a year. Should I pull it out of my a$$ or my magic rabbit hat?
I think I'm all set! Social Security gave me a $!30/mo raise this year, but my Medicare premium increased by $30/mo so that's an annual net of $1,200. leaving me only $4,000 short of the income I'd need to match the spending power I had a year ago. Go USA!
You know you can budget your way out of poverty. No need to thank me for the tip
I was actually pretty fortunate that I had a couple thousand in savings. Then my beloved doggo got sick. Now I'm about out of savings and he still has 2 more procedures he needs. So, I'm just supposed to let him suffer? I actually make about 4 times minimum wage and I still can't get ahead and build a savings.
Corporations are choosing to raise prices. Corporations are choosing not to pay their workers more. The US President doesn't control gas prices in the US, let alone in other nations. Blame corporations and then maybe learn some things about the dark side of capitalism.
What's more interesting is they have really gotten the middle and lower middle class to buy into this. The whole "embarrassed millionaire" syndrome is rampant. Look at Alabama: they voted against union at Amazon. They basically have so fine tuned the art of foot shooting it's amazing.
Load More Replies...I knew Americans had it bad, but I did not realize how bad. For comparison, I have a pretty standard job with a pretty standard salary. My savings are not that great, because since I lost my fixed job in 2017 I only had short term contracts with month long gaps in-between. Still...according to that graphic I would be in the top 10%. What the hell? Of course I've heard about student debt, insane medical bills, minimal wage jobs etc. But for some reason it never clicked in my brain that all this together means that you will not have any savings, like ever. It's quite shocking, to be honest.
To add a little to the healthcare side of that, many Americans pay insane premiums for their health insurance, often hundreds per month per member of the household, and that still leaves them with having to pay thousands in deductible before it kicks in and at least 20% of the cost after that. So they can be paying over $1K+ to insure a small family and STILL end up in ruinous debt if they have a major medical issue. When an American states their salary, one thing that is hazy is how much their health insurance costs them. Since we have this weird system that ties our insurance to our employer, it's usually completely opaque what the employer pays for it, but in general higher paid workers also get better plans with higher subsidy. So an engineer making $250K might get a plan where they pay $100/month per person with no deductible and a warehouse worker making $40K might be paying $500/month per person for a plan where they have a $3K+ deductible.
Load More Replies...What I don't get, is that there is still not a revolution going on in the US. Eat the rich!
Because we have been brainwashed into buying the propaganda that the stooges of the 1% spew. Because they know the media they control can easily distract us with celebrity gossip, sports, or the old immigrants-are-after-your-jobs B.S.
Load More Replies...So here's a thought. Any company that increased prices on its goods or services but failed to raise wages for its workers will be taxed at 120% of that increase. The funds will be collected and redistributed to those employees in the form of a stimulus payment. The extra 20% over profit gains is to encourage businesses to do the right thing because we have to teach them that people matter. Attempts to raise the wage of the CEO/ upper management only will incur an additional penalty of 300%.
Bloomberg: Our corporations had such a tremendously profitable year in 2021🤩 Bloomberg: So in order to obtain the insane profits this year we're gonna need America to step up and budget a little extra about $5300 maybe $5500! Bloomberg: An with your help America 2022 will be a wonderful year for us🤑.....all...Us all. Me: F**k you 🖕 Bloomberg!
In a nutshell, don't sleep, don't rest, don't relax, don't eat, don't shower, don't don't don't ----- but I bet my last coin taht the economist makes a s**t-ton of $$$, and, yes, that's a legal measure where I'm from in the US.
We're facing the same situation in the uk, there was a cap on energy, but that's been removed and the price is being raised by 48% this month, with another similar rise expected in October, and petrol is just insane, averaging iut at around £2.00 for a litre, and that's even before you consider the increasing costs of food and other essentials, while supermarkets especially are reporting record profits the past 2 years, but none of this is trickling down to the consumer... it's not sustainable somethings going to give and it's not going to be pretty
Load More Replies...Maybe they are planning to add 2 or 3 more months to the year, that would be completely bill free??? Because that is the only way I would be able to even make that much more to save, without spending a dime of it.
Meanwhile, all of that shoplifting and robbery and break ins in almost every city in America on the rise is due to cityfolk being just too soft on crime. We should punish the poor and downtrodden more often and severely. That'll teach them to choose to be poor and desperate.
IF people were getting the cost of living raises they’re supposed to get every year, maybe things would be different. But 40 years of missed cost of living raises puts us behind the 8 ball. Maybe the corporations who have had such good years lately should retroactively pay us that money. I’m 61, and spent my entire young adulthood without cost of living raises. I’ll take that lump sum.
I feel robbed. My wife and I have a successful pet care business, we work 7 days a week, but we have no savings and will never be able to own a home or retire. Housing and medical costs just keep going up. 35 years ago, my single mother of two was able to afford a home, and has been building equity since then. She sold it in 1989 for $150,000. Two years ago it sold for $812,000. With the same math, the $4.25/hr minimum wage I was making as an 18-year-old should be about $23.00/hr now.
As for Reckless Disco trying to shade Biden. Yes it is an amazing economy.... Best year for business in 70 years. The Trickle Down portion just isn't working too well.
Talk about tone deaf media. Inflation and gas prices make that impossible even for those that could save before. I'm in CA where the minimum wage is $15.00 per hour, ($14 for small co's,) but housing is so expensive you can barely afford to rent or buy. This "saving expectation" that rich people (who watch Bloomberg media,) have no clue how difficult to live, certainly not able to save. Home ownership here requires around a six figure salary (or combined with a partner/spouse.) It's really hard to saving for a down payment.
Wife and I are both looking at how to combat all of this. She wants to be more financially responsible and pick up extra hours. I on the other hand just think its the employers' (as a whole) responsibility to pay a living wage and refuse to give them more of my time than I already do. I guess she's actually making positive changes and I'm just bitching when I put it that way
Don't want to pay what employees need and deserve and don't freeze prices, seems global stupidity.
How can some people be so out of touch, when they know consumers are getting robbed, while corporations get extra profit? I'm about to tear off every "wow," or "woohoo ", sticker off the shelves in grocery stores. It's a huge slap to my face. I shop every week. I am not stupid. I know that price went up. It's not a sale to rejoice in. (Also, when a price goes up due to a short term problem, it never goes back down when the "problem" is gone.)
Just as a random thought...have you seen how nice Danish prisons are?
Jese and I thought my $10k emergency fund was pathetic I had no idea how bad it was out there.
You can make 5k from disability payments if you don’t spend any of it and go into a coma instead 🤔. Don’t worry bros, I have an idea. We’re going to all go drink enough water to drown a fish, get Hyponutremia, and either die or go into a coma for a couple years. It’s a genius plan!
So much for the American Dreams huh!? Anyway, I dont get it, especially with the sarcastical comments (above on BP, not down here). He's just suggesting whats gonna happens, for us to be prepared about it. These r happening all over the world, we hv no choice but to live with it, finding our way around such as reducing our expenditures here n there, finding additional job (or jobs) or other sources of side incomes!?
Oh sure, I could easily conjure up an extra $5.2K a year. Should I pull it out of my a$$ or my magic rabbit hat?
I think I'm all set! Social Security gave me a $!30/mo raise this year, but my Medicare premium increased by $30/mo so that's an annual net of $1,200. leaving me only $4,000 short of the income I'd need to match the spending power I had a year ago. Go USA!
You know you can budget your way out of poverty. No need to thank me for the tip
I was actually pretty fortunate that I had a couple thousand in savings. Then my beloved doggo got sick. Now I'm about out of savings and he still has 2 more procedures he needs. So, I'm just supposed to let him suffer? I actually make about 4 times minimum wage and I still can't get ahead and build a savings.
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