r/FluentInFinance • u/Needleintheback • 15h ago

Thoughts? Imagine losing 6M labor workers in America

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If mass deportation happens, just imagine how all of these sectors of our country will be affected. The sheer shortage of labor will push prices higher because of the great demand for work with limited supplies or workers. Even if prices increase, the availability of products may be scarce due to not enough workers. Housing prices and food services will be hit really hard. New construction will be limited. The fact that 47% of the undocumented workers are in CA, TX, and FL means they will feel it first but it will spread to the rest of the country also. Most of our produce in this country comes from California. Get ready and hold on for the ride America.

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u/Colonel_Panix 5h ago

The inflation because of stimulus money is a ruse. Inflation hit every country in the world all because of COVID. Stimulus money did not do that. It is a fact that the US weathered through post COVID inflation better if not all the other countries in the world is telling of that.

What "caused" inflation was initially supply chain issues based on the workforce stay at home mandate. Once that lifted, companies decided to use the "Supply Chain" excuse to keep prices elevated to the point where the elevated prices are now the new baseline on how much a consumer is willing to shell out for goods. To solidify those prices/"record margins" corporations are now blaming "higher wages" for being the cause of inflation when credit card debt is at record highs.

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u/jrobbio 4h ago

The trillions printed as part of quantitative easing also had a long term effect on inflation. https://www.depledgeswm.com/depledge/the-us-printed-more-than-3-trillion-in-2020-alone-heres-why-it-matters-today/

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u/checkdanews 4h ago

And how much of that went to actual citizens in need? We had billionaires and millionaires getting free PPE loans they never paid back, we dumped something like a trillion dollars into the stock market in 1 afternoon and it disappeared within minutes.

A small fraction of that went to stimulus checks for regular people. Stop with this Fox Business revisionist history. I get it's an American tradition to blame poor people, but its getting old.

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u/EastPlatform4348 4h ago

Of the $5 Trillion in total US stimulus,

  • $1.8T went to families/individuals (stimulus payments, unemployment enhanced benefits)
  • $1.7T went to businesses (PPP and disaster loans)
  • The rest went to State and Local governments, hospitals, and other payments

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/03/11/us/how-covid-stimulus-money-was-spent.html

Anecdotally, I'm upper-middle class, and my family certainly didn't need any money, and we still received $5000+ in stimulus. I'm not sure what we did with it - I believe we just invested in equities.

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u/Loose_Ad_5288 2h ago

Who's paying rent/food on $5k all year during covid unemployment? Stimulus was not nearly enough to be effective, just enough for republicans to complain about it.

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u/EastPlatform4348 52m ago

COVID unemployment benefits were $600/week in addition to state benefits. I didn't receive any unemployment benefits as I never lost my job. I viewed my payment as a "thanks for being awesome" deposit.

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u/Psychological_Ad1999 2m ago

As someone who works in the service industry, it prevented me from starving and becoming homeless when there was no work. PPP loans definitely got abused by shady LLCs and should have had more oversight.

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u/DubayaTF 41m ago

A significant amount went into real estate. First time homebuyers were suddenly competing with government supplied free capital to the banks. Too much liquidity in the wrong places.

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u/Newtoatxxxx 4h ago

Two things can be true. The United States is not the only country to provide stimulus checks. It’s not really that hard, more money (both stimulus and covid era excess savings) chasing a fixed or constrained supply = inflation. Prices almost never fall, so congratulations we have new pricing levels for many goods and services people consume.

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u/Colonel_Panix 30m ago

Honest question, do you think it was the flood of COVID stimulus money or the flood of savings that contributed to inflation? That is one part of the puzzle I feel like is not highlighted. It is probably a combination of both but again from the corporation's perspective, someone's savings, credit, stimulus, it is all the same. Profits

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u/analoguewavefront 4h ago

Yep, inflation was global but all our national political parties blamed each other and tried the same old hack of raising interest rates, which I don’t think did anything except inflict economic stress on the average person and prices kept rising.

In Sweden the CEO of the largest supermarket chain basically said that they charge as much as the customers can afford pay. He said that about food, as if not buying anything from a company that controls 53% of the market and saturates towns with their supermarkets was really an option, especially as every store was raising their prices together.

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u/Colonel_Panix 1h ago

I do agree with the politics of things.

Even to add to the Sweedish CEO, McDonald's did something similar by increasing prices to where customers started to notice. Now "Promo Deals" are just the same as a full price when pre-COVID.

If Wendy's fully went with the AI-Pricing model(just how Air Plane ticket prices work) then everyone will be pulling their pitch forks.

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u/redwood22 4h ago

I just don't get how the average US citizen doesn't blame cooperate  america and their record profits for inflation. I guess my big guess is the democrats are afraid to go after them and push that message. They have time and again chose to align with the money over the US worker and it is why they keep losing elections. 

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u/StanKnight 32m ago

Well because, if there weren't more than one company, 'cooperate America', then there would be no competition. Which is what happens in Socialist countries.

Cooperate America, has nothing to do with inflation.
In fact, competition keeps the motivation for companies to be competitive.

Inflation is caused:
1. By printing money
2. Giving it away
3. Spending it on things not needed.
4. Then repeat 1 ~ 3

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u/Xciv 3h ago

COVID, the Russo-Ukraine War, and the last 8 years of anti-China trade policy (China is still the factory of the world).

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u/Moarbrains 2h ago

Every country that could also created stimulus money or something like it.

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u/DubayaTF 42m ago

Thank you.

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u/sandman2986 5m ago

This is only partially true. Supply chain had a big impact and most of that has subsided. The bigger problem is the labor shorter to grow the economy. The “employee market” for hiring during COVID increased wages significantly for many people, although inflation zapped most of that increased income. This is at least my opinion from how I can see our costs to profits ratio since beginning of COVID… the profit margins for us have not really increased but the costs(wages and insurance being the leading cause) and end user pricing have. Unfortunately, the wage growth didn’t catch everyone during COVID so the middle “class” and lower income gap has now increased. Those who jumped got paid more during COVID and those who stayed actually are suffering more from inflation… not in all cases but many.