O’Brien acknowledges Biden has been a “great” president for organized labor. But he told the Globe that Biden hasn’t delivered on all his promises and the Teamsters are worried their backing is being taken for granted.
and then once no one was paying attention anymore, his administration kept working the issue and got the workers the sick days they were striking for in the first place.
some of the workers got some of their demands. if they’d been able to bring the rail to a halt, they might have gotten it all.
Let’s take all that “how DARE Biden let there be inflation, doesn’t he understand my grocery bill” energy and apply it to this here comment right here
Honestly, in terms of my own personal beliefs, I agree with you. I think if the workers that make the US economy operate decide to bring it to its knees until it starts treating them like humans again, fuckin God bless ‘em and I’ll start eating ramen and eggs until they’re done. I just think it’s a little much to ask a US President to commit the political suicide that would be allowing that to happen (in particular because, given how eager people are to blame him for inflation that wasn’t his fault, I don’t think they would react well to a big economic disruption and lots of inflation that actually was squarely his “fault”).
i don’t give any credence to any argument that involves inflation. i don’t believe anyone makes any decision that causally increases or decreases the buying power of a dollar, except perhaps the buyer and seller in any transaction, but only within the confines of that transaction, anyway. i do care about people being able to overthrow the capitalist system and the president stepping in and saying “no” is fucking infuriating.
i don’t believe anyone makes any decision that causally increases or decreases the buying power of a dollar, except perhaps the buyer and seller in any transaction, but only within the confines of that transaction, anyway.
If a country’s monetary authority decides to increase the money in circulation (like what happened during Covid), which lowers demand because there’s now more of it, that’s certainly somebody influencing inflation. I’d like to hear how it’s not.
It’s not that hard. Think of it in terms other than money. You have a stick of gum. You want to trade this for a lollipop. That’s fine, you find someone with a lollipop and make the trade.
Next day, someone comes along with an infinite lollipop-making machine. People start handing out lollipops. The same guy from yesterday comes to you and wants to buy 15 more sticks of gum with his fresh lollipops he just got from the lollipop printer. Well, turns out, you’ve been amassing lollipops too because of this. You now demand 10 lollipops for the stick of gum, because you have the last three sticks and everybody including you are swimming in lollipops.
You’d have to be a complete idiot to continue selling sticks of gum for one lollipop, and if you are, you are definitely going to be taken advantage of and are going to get cleaned out of all your gum.
Economic forces don’t just stop existing when capitalism does. People will continue to be people. I say this as an anarchist.
there is no way you tested a bubblegum and lollipops economy with an infinite lollipop machine, and if you did, the results are not applicable to the economies of Venezuela or Zimbabwe
some of the workers got some of their demands. if they’d been able to bring the rail to a halt, they might have gotten it all.
Let’s take all that “how DARE Biden let there be inflation, doesn’t he understand my grocery bill” energy and apply it to this here comment right here
Honestly, in terms of my own personal beliefs, I agree with you. I think if the workers that make the US economy operate decide to bring it to its knees until it starts treating them like humans again, fuckin God bless ‘em and I’ll start eating ramen and eggs until they’re done. I just think it’s a little much to ask a US President to commit the political suicide that would be allowing that to happen (in particular because, given how eager people are to blame him for inflation that wasn’t his fault, I don’t think they would react well to a big economic disruption and lots of inflation that actually was squarely his “fault”).
i don’t give any credence to any argument that involves inflation. i don’t believe anyone makes any decision that causally increases or decreases the buying power of a dollar, except perhaps the buyer and seller in any transaction, but only within the confines of that transaction, anyway. i do care about people being able to overthrow the capitalist system and the president stepping in and saying “no” is fucking infuriating.
I think we’re done here
oh, ok.
Even though you don’t like capitalism, you would benefit from reading some basics on economics.
this is posturing and rhetoric. it is not evidence of a natural phenomenon called “inflation”
If a country’s monetary authority decides to increase the money in circulation (like what happened during Covid), which lowers demand because there’s now more of it, that’s certainly somebody influencing inflation. I’d like to hear how it’s not.
that’s story-telling. it’s a myth. everyone could have chosen not to accept higher prices, or levy them. then what? did “inflation” still happen?
It’s not that hard. Think of it in terms other than money. You have a stick of gum. You want to trade this for a lollipop. That’s fine, you find someone with a lollipop and make the trade.
Next day, someone comes along with an infinite lollipop-making machine. People start handing out lollipops. The same guy from yesterday comes to you and wants to buy 15 more sticks of gum with his fresh lollipops he just got from the lollipop printer. Well, turns out, you’ve been amassing lollipops too because of this. You now demand 10 lollipops for the stick of gum, because you have the last three sticks and everybody including you are swimming in lollipops.
You’d have to be a complete idiot to continue selling sticks of gum for one lollipop, and if you are, you are definitely going to be taken advantage of and are going to get cleaned out of all your gum.
Economic forces don’t just stop existing when capitalism does. People will continue to be people. I say this as an anarchist.
this is storytelling, it is not evidence of a testable causal relationship
It’s been tested. Many, many times in history. Weimar Republic. Zimbabwe. Venezuela.
there is no way you tested a bubblegum and lollipops economy with an infinite lollipop machine, and if you did, the results are not applicable to the economies of Venezuela or Zimbabwe