Are The Price Increases Affecting You?

[PhilipDT]

There's your problem, stop patronising Starbucks. Big corporate chain = evil.

What are you talking about? Prices have increased because of the place I am buying coffee?

What????? Did you even read my post?

 

[Redpossum]

I was wondering if you consider non-profit corporations evil...such as the American Red Cross or the NAACP (among many others).

Could it be the profit motive that "virtually mandates unethical behavior, and destructively short term thinking" as opposed to the "corporate structure" itself?

It's the combination of the two, corporate structure and profit motive. But that doesn't mean that the Red Cross or NAACP are immune. At the time of the huge fire of 2003 in San Diego County, the director of the California Red Cross was receiving a total compensation package of over 900,000 USD per year. And every single dollar of that came from charitable donations. That is grossly abusive, and the corporate structure which allows it is evil.

The same applies to many other "charitable" non-profits. Take a look at the United Way, and how little of the donations they receive is actually passed along to the needy, as opposed to squandered on huge compensation packages and luxurious offices.

I can't discuss the NAACP without some clown calling me racist, so I'll pass on that one.

 

[nlaruccia]

What does the price of cars have to do with her roof? How does her roof compare to others in the area? US$10,000 is just a number, not necessarily unfair. Did she get multiple bids?

The price of cars, insurance, everything is going up. Rent practically doubles every two years. Yes she got multiple bids for the roof repair job and according to my cousin, an engineer with a construction company in Zona Norte, $10,000 US is not that much to pay. It's inflation, the cost of building materials, workers' wages, fees paid to unions. My point is, we're bickering about the price of tomatoes going up (or in my case kitty litter) when there are more serious necessary services we use that are becoming unaffordable.

 

[johnw100]

I`m not an expert on economics but I do feel alot of the inflation in Argentina is based around greed of individuals & companies.

I know of quite a few cases from personal experience, one that sticks out is a company that sells kitchen worktops. We looked locally for a white worktop and had quotes in the $3000 for your standard brown/black/grey granite worktop and then $7000+ in anything imported. Then we found an importer of italian worktops, they quoted us $3500! including shipping and its a beautiful modern white worktop, not like many ugly granite ones you find here. We asked a local shop to cut it for us and fit it, and he was so impressed with the quality and shipping he ordered some in. My wife sneekly phoned them up a while later for a quote , he was asking $13000 pesos for the same worktop we bought for $3500!! When asked why so much, he pointed to inflation and import costs. Last month he said I was selling them for $9000. Bullshit!

And another example, our electrician installed all new plugs and sockets in our house, some 40+ sockets,etc.By the time he came to do the job he`d raised the prices up slightly when we queried his prices he blamed inflation for the cost of parts,etc. He gave us a receipt from the local store where he purchased them but I grew suspicious when I found part of a bill for a local school at the bottom of the large box that had all the bits in. Turns out that local store didnt supply those parts because they dont sell that brand and were probably left overs or stolen from a school installation the electrician had worked on.

I`m not saying this is the total reason, but I think alot of people are just trying it on and blaming inflation.

 

[steveinbsas]

I`m not an expert on economics but I do feel alot of the inflation in Argentina is based around greed of individuals & companies.

I agree with you that some are using inflation as an excuse for price gouging, but unless they have the power to print money, they aren't the ones responsible for inflation.

 

[Chet]

Some interesting data on inflation, world wide
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/FP.CPI.TOTL.ZG?order=wbapi_data_value_2012+wbapi_data_value+wbapi_data_value-last&sort=desc

 

[sleslie23]

Some interesting data on inflation, world wide
http://data.worldban...-last&sort=desc

What are you a shill from INDEC? Use the search function and type in "INDEC and inflation." You'll see how silly your link is in the context of this thread.

 

[thorsten]

Note that this data is far from accurate. For instance, the data of Argentina are the official values which were at least "creative" in the past. In general, I would be very suspect of any kind of statistics for which the exact methodology is not published.

 

[ajoknoblauch]

I agree with you that some are using inflation as an excuse for price gouging, but unless they have the power to print money, they aren't the ones responsible for inflation.

Well, some of them might be counterfeiting...or pushing "bitcoins."

 

[ajoknoblauch]

The price of cars, insurance, everything is going up. Rent practically doubles every two years. Yes she got multiple bids for the roof repair job and according to my cousin, an engineer with a construction company in Zona Norte, $10,000 US is not that much to pay. It's inflation, the cost of building materials, workers' wages, fees paid to unions. My point is, we're bickering about the price of tomatoes going up (or in my case kitty litter) when there are more serious necessary services we use that are becoming unaffordable.

If that's the market price, so be it. But remember...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BmwEwytCAAEy4El.jpg:large