‘Stop the price-gouging’: Biden hits corporations over high consumer costs
www.cnbc.com
Big business and junk fees prove easy targets for the White House in the inflation blame game.
  • Dizzy Devil Ducky@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    3 years ago

    Oh boy! The president telling his bosses to stop screwing over the common people! Surely this will not backfire in any way whatsoever! /s

    • GiddyGap@lemm.ee
      0·
      3 years ago

      If history is any indication, Republicans will definitely not take the side of corporations over consumers, right?

        • GiddyGap@lemm.ee
          0·
          3 years ago

          I think it’s pretty safe to say that the Republican Party is pro-corporation above all else.

          Democrats could probably do more for consumers, but I have way more faith that they will actually try to do more.

  • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
    0·
    3 years ago

    Too tired to cook tonight, my wife already cooked for herself, so I hopped on GrubHub:

    That’s before GrubHub fees, delivery fees, driver tip.

    A single Whopper meal with all that included:

    Meal - $16.47 (large sized)
    Delivery Fee - $0.99
    Service Fee - $2.14
    Total - $19.60

    Add a tip for your driver (20% suggested) $3.72

    (No idea how they’re getting that… $3.72 would be 20% of $18.60 so I guess they’re calculating it based on the meal + the service fee?)

    Regardless, $3.72 is a shit tip for a delivery driver, $4 is my minimum.

    So dinner, for one person, delivered, $23.60.

    Anyone remember when a Whopper was $0.99?

    (yeah, no, made a sandwich instead)

  • protist@mander.xyzEnglish
    0·
    3 years ago

    Everyone seems to think saying this is all he’s doing, but that’s incorrect.

    He issued an executive order in 2021 to orient his entire administration to increase enforcement of antitrust law among all departments and promote competitive practices wherever possible. There has definitely been an uptick in antitrust cases since then, and inflation has also decreased significantly.

    https://www.justice.gov/atr/antitrust-case-filings

  • halfempty@kbin.social
    0·
    3 years ago

    I would like to see more concrete actions limiting corporate price-gouging, and not just words. Corporations aren’t going to do anything just because the president says “stop doing it”.

    • SwampYankee@mander.xyz
      0·
      3 years ago

      There’s a big uptick in antitrust action under the Biden administration. There’s more than just talk here and the administration is trying to push this in a progressive direction. Unfortunately, the regulatory agencies and courts are infected with neoliberalism due to 4 decades of neoliberal domination of our government, economy, and society, so it’s not as successful as it may have been in, say, the 70s. But that just means we need to keep that rudder pinned to the left until we get there. The absolute worst thing we could do right now for this and so many other reasons is elect a republican.

    • SuiXi3D@kbin.social
      0·
      3 years ago

      Until we get a wrath tax, nothing will change. And even then, all the rich folks will just move out of the country.

  • Endorkend@kbin.social
    0·
    3 years ago

    Since corporations are expected to display near continuous growth, they literally can’t stop the gouging.

    Until they are forced to somehow, things will get worse.

    • Immersive_Matthew@sh.itjust.works
      01·
      3 years ago

      Absolutely and that is how they should behave,with the law/regulations reigning them in. It is the latter part that has been hijacked by highly centralized groups with lots of money and we the people not making much noise about it. They think they are cleaver, but what they fail to understand is that tipping the rules to make it a free for all, sucks the oxygen out of the economy as we are seeing and all will suffer including their businesses. Fools

  • spider@lemmy.nzdeleted by creator
    0·
    3 years ago

    He’s a bit late; that horse left the barn more than a year ago.

  • EveningPancakes@lemm.ee
    0·
    3 years ago

    This is going to do fuck all.

    Geico decided to raise my monthly insurance rate by 129%, despite nothing on my end contributing to that (no tickets, no accidents). When I called them to make sure this wasn’t an error, essentially I was told “Sorry, parts got more expensive. Fuck off.”

  • ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works
    01·
    3 years ago

    Our union finally got our contract after 11 months of negotiation signed… and our health insurance immediately hiked to eat the difference in raises and COLA.

    Every level of employee is just getting their wages hoovered by insurance, just about everywhere.

    • rchive@lemm.ee
      0·
      3 years ago

      This is why individual insurance is better. You can switch to a better provider without convincing a large bureaucracy first.