'#Britain once rioted over the price of bread. What would it take for us to confront #greedflation today?

We seem to wearily accept #CorporateProfiteering as a fact of life. But an ever poorer public can be pushed only so far'
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/28/british-bread-greedflation-profiteering-poor
#Inflation #CostOfLivingCrisis #ToryPoliciesInAction

"pharmaceutical companies have used the opioid crisis, and the nation’s fear of fentanyl, to aggressively market high-cost naloxone products that divert resources away from cheaper forms of the lifesaving medication"
#HarmReduction #CorporateProfiteering https://www.statnews.com/2023/03/28/opioid-overdose-naloxone-industry-profits/

During my lifetime, the proportion of Australia's GDP claimed by corporate profits (i.e. largely going into the coffers of the #plutocrats) has doubled.

Here's an expert breaking down the numbers, demonstrating that we are not facing an #inflation crisis so much as an unparalleled moment of #CorporateProfiteering. Even just looking at the last three years, if wages had stayed at the same proportion of GDP, then the average Australian worker would be $5k/yr better off.

Put differently, corporations have ripped about $15k from the average Australian worker since the start of the pandemic.

"wage growth has now lagged consumer prices for seven consecutive quarters. This is also a record. As a result, #RealWages have fallen by 5% in the three years since December 2019."

That's the result of opportunistic profiteering, aided and abetted by largely captured regulators.

It doesn't stop till it is made to stop.

#Auspol

https://theconversation.com/underlying-australias-inflation-problem-is-a-historic-shift-of-income-from-workers-to-corporate-profits-200700

Everyone is feeling the pinch. In Australia, the head of the Reserve Bank sounds grim warnings of a "wage-price spiral". Interest rates are going up and up. What is going on?

Let's say a year ago that making a loaf of bread cost $3 (ingredients, labour, packaging, transport, sales, etc), and buying a loaf of bread cost $4.
(All prices merely illustrative)

Then Putin invades Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine produce 20% of the world's wheat between them, so the price of grain goes up.

Now making a loaf costs $3.30, due to the price of wheat. So corporations selling bread can either (1) take the hit to their profits, (2) increase the price of bread to $4.30, or (3) realise that everyone is talking about expensive wheat due to the war & raise the price to $4.80.

Unsurprisingly, they pick (3).
Workers, feeling the price rises, demand higher wages. Employers, dragging their feet, agree to small wage increases that add another $0.20 to the cost of making a loaf.

So bread now costs $5 to buy, and $3.50 to make. Corporate profits skyrocket. Their allies in media and finance vociferously blame the workers. Consumers struggle. Inequality rises.

That's what's going down.

#Auspol #inflation #CostOfLiving #capitalism #CorporateProfiteering
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/feb/24/an-economic-fairytale-australias-inflation-being-driven-by-company-profits-and-not-wages-analysis-finds

@guardian_bot This is precisely what experts, critics and activists warned would happen back when the Oz #FossilGas industry was pushing for export terminals to be build on the east coast, linking Oz to global prices and incentivising + enabling gas companies to engage in such #CorporateProfiteering.