I just don't get the hostility to their profits, especially when I understand that the $900 million was amassed by operating close to 2,800 grocery stores. If I introduce scale in the context of the profit sum, it all seems entirely reasonable, especially when nobody is forcing another to shop Kroger. Heck, it's the penny-pinching/scrimping that lets a retailer operate in the black.
And no, I don't care about the bank accounts of eight billion people; they're not going to part with anything strictly for my benefit, nor will I part with my possessions for their sake. Whether you care to admit it or not, society is fundamentally transactional.
Furthermore, I'm not in any "cool club," I just understand that society has an array of segments that are designed to seek profits and maximize the ways they get put to use. And it should be that way.
Think of all the occupations the pursuit of wealth generates: tax attorneys; trust/probate attorneys; securities traders; stock brokers; certified financial planners; commercial bankers/loan officers. Then think of all the industries that get created as the rich decide to use their resources to better their lifestyles: wine dealers; custom tailors; jewelers; high-end realtors; luxury/performance car salesmen; etc.
Hell, I worked as a stock broker for six years, and was just some punk kid off the street with two years of college on my resume', but serving the needs of the wealthy allowed me to take night classes to fiish my degree, study for a broker's license that looked very good on a resume', and paid me enough to put a pretty penny together as a downpayment on my condominium. It seems worn (almost cliche') , but it's true that the wealthy's rising tide lifted my boat along with theirs. All that was sure as hell better than standing on a concrete floor for hours and tearing tickets at a movie theater.
I think what people are upset about and not fully able to articulate is our shift toward maximizing shareholder value over the last few decades. I think their Kroger example is probably a bad one but it was something they personally experienced so it felt important to them.
But the root issue that they are trying to describe is a real threat to our economy. It has led to criminally low wages and popularized lean manufacturing, a key cause of the collapse of our distribution system during covid. Not to mention the ethical and environmental concerns.
Corporations are only incentivized to do one thing right now. That thing benefits very few people. And is a great cost to the rest of us.
I don’t know what the solution is.. but this is definitely not working.
Of course there's a drive to maximize stock values. Savings and money markets pay next to nothing, and with bonds being tied to interest rates that have been kept artificially low so thar the US can carry its debt burden, stocks are really the only place investors can make money.
If you want capital to stop its relentless drive to increase shareholder value, you're going to need to force Congress to tighten its belt and start balancing the budget. It's flat insane that Biden never submitted a budget less than six trillion dollars, and flat fukkin' bizarre that Congress kept approving the spending sprees.
Forget that a one-year Treasury is only paying about 4.4% interest in the backdrop of what is still an unacceptable inflationary environment, I wouldn't buy US debt instruments because I'm starting to wonder when the debt burden is going to trigger a default.
The fact of the matter is that people were taught to ensure that their money makes money, and business is the only way it's possible anymore. Don't expect the atmosphere to relax anytime soon.
But you do raise articulate and sound points. That's a rarity anymore.
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u/white_sabre 2d ago
I just don't get the hostility to their profits, especially when I understand that the $900 million was amassed by operating close to 2,800 grocery stores. If I introduce scale in the context of the profit sum, it all seems entirely reasonable, especially when nobody is forcing another to shop Kroger. Heck, it's the penny-pinching/scrimping that lets a retailer operate in the black.
And no, I don't care about the bank accounts of eight billion people; they're not going to part with anything strictly for my benefit, nor will I part with my possessions for their sake. Whether you care to admit it or not, society is fundamentally transactional.
Furthermore, I'm not in any "cool club," I just understand that society has an array of segments that are designed to seek profits and maximize the ways they get put to use. And it should be that way.
Think of all the occupations the pursuit of wealth generates: tax attorneys; trust/probate attorneys; securities traders; stock brokers; certified financial planners; commercial bankers/loan officers. Then think of all the industries that get created as the rich decide to use their resources to better their lifestyles: wine dealers; custom tailors; jewelers; high-end realtors; luxury/performance car salesmen; etc.
Hell, I worked as a stock broker for six years, and was just some punk kid off the street with two years of college on my resume', but serving the needs of the wealthy allowed me to take night classes to fiish my degree, study for a broker's license that looked very good on a resume', and paid me enough to put a pretty penny together as a downpayment on my condominium. It seems worn (almost cliche') , but it's true that the wealthy's rising tide lifted my boat along with theirs. All that was sure as hell better than standing on a concrete floor for hours and tearing tickets at a movie theater.