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@peter4jc said:
The Democrats, seeing polls that say inflation is one of their biggest weaknesses in the voters' opinions, have shifted their messaging to blaming corporate greed.

Now, I'm certain corporate greed exists, as they are nothing more than manifestations of the human condition. What I don't understand is why corporations have waited until now to ramp up this greediness and cause the inflation they're being blamed for. Why didn't they do it 5 years ago? Or, is this nothing more than the Democrats playing hide the sausage with us?

At my job I've seen the markings of it, and I feel we've been objectively better than most. Before Covid we had 140k employees across the US and were reporting about 2B a year profit. Covid hit, and they way product moved through the supply chains just changed. A lot more direct to consumer, a lot less middle men. In 2021 we had 4.2B profit. Immediately following the US started to shift into recession, but every business plans to grow, so our forecast goals were set to 4.3B. Last year we were at 3.2B, with only 100k employees. Objectively it was a phenomenal year if you disregard the 2 years of the pandemic as outliers. But.... Since we we're so far below budget we are cutting every support department we have down to nothing to try to make up the difference.

During the pandemic a lot of companies saw record profits due to government "loans" that were since forgiven, and a more direct supply chain. For companies that directly produce and sell products, they will have set their future budgets based on those same profits. When everything begins to return to normal, the easiest way to push for the budget is to increase prices. If only one or two companies were doing this is would be immediately apparent to everyone what was happening, but it's occurring across the board.

I don't believe that there was a single person at any company that is intentional inflating things due to greed, but it is a direct result of the inflated budgets that everyone ended up with due to the bizarre circumstances from the last few years.

Except colleges... That sh*t is pure greed...

Why was an “emergency shipment” needed? Do they not have other foods to sustain them? Are the suffering from cucumber deficiency syndrome? It is Iceland…so maybe they are their last remaining heat source??? What’s the EMERGENCY????

Just one of the many reasons I hate the media. And I also refuse to use that other term to describe someone. The guys one the vherf influence me. Not some screwed up teenager with a camera

@Bob_Luken said:
Well, I was never any good at cursive. Lost the ability after a while. I print if necessary. The only thing cursive I do is my signature.

Me too with losing the ability. I even stopped making my signature in cursive. I do my three initials, but in a stylized manner.