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Could this be resolved by making loose laws about a company's division of income? For example, X% of the profits go to food and beverage makers/servers, Y% goes to a company-savings, Z% goes to managers, etc.?
I call it greed, because that's what's motivating it. Everyone is out to gouge everyone else for as much as they can get. What sets the prices is how much we are willing to pay for something. Not how much it costs to make it. When the sellers complain about labor costs, all their complaining about is the fact that the laborers want a piece of the profits and the sellers don't want to give them any. It's all greed vs. survival. Because capitalism pits everyone against everyone else in pursuit of the greatest profit.
I truly do not understand your POV at all. If a company is able to sell a product at a high price and customers are willing to pay....what is problematic about it. Price gauging only comes if it's a monopoly and customer has no other option. Obviously this is not the case for latte. Even if you take say Apple MacBook which is way overpriced compared to others, they still get customers who are willing to buy it over many cheaper options. So what is the problem again?
And it doesn't matter, because that's not what's determining the price of things. It's all about how much we'll pay for it. Not what it costs to produce it. What it costs to produce it is the seller's problem. The seller's greed is our problem. Why do you think the oil prices went up? Because they could use the "shortage" as an excuse to raise the price, and get away with it. Then the transportation industry used that as an excuse to raise their prices, and on and on it goes, because everyone is passing the greed on to everyone else. The war did not actually make the production of gasoline from oil any more expensive, and there are still plenty of oil reserves. But the news of a potential shortage was enough of an excuse to drastically raise the prices, because as long as people believe there's a shortage, they will be willing to accept the huge price gouging.
The problem is that it's expressed greed, not commerce. And it's not fair trade. And when every seller does it, it means that everything we buy is trying to get our last dollar. And it is. The end result being that millions and millions of people are living paycheck to paycheck because every dollar of that paycheck is being swallowed up by this entrenched greed. Meanwhile the most clever and greedy and lucky in this 'system' become multi-billionaires and use all that money to corrupt whole governments, and to start wars for profit, and to do all sorts of nefarious things because money is power. And they are amoral. The whole system is amoral, and oblivious to the well being of humanity.
But monopoly is the goal of every business enterprise under capitalism. Every capitalist ideals wants to sell you a box of nothing in exchange for every dollar you have. And every trade he makes is "successful" to the degree that he comes closer to that goal. That's exploitation, not commerce. And it result of horrible suffering and abuse. While we IDIOTS tout it as if it were some sort of divine right, and even a virtue.
The problem is that it's exploitation, not commerce. And when we agree to participate in it, we cause it to spread, and people to become blind to it. Apple convinced the public that it's product is that much better than the others. But is it? Or are they lying? They exploit the fact that most of us don't know the answer to that question. If you have more money than you need that exploitation doesn't hurt you much. But every dollar you have more than you need is a dollar someone else needs but doesn't have. And all this exploitation hurts them far more.
That's because you continue to ignore the real reasons for the increases in the first place.
Then why are so many more people struggling to survive economically? The answer is because we have made all these things more essential. And because they are now essential, the sellers have a monopoly. Try living without a car or a phone or internet and see how long you can avoid becoming homeless.
They aren't being controlled. They don't need to be. Those CEOs are all united by their mutual greed. No one wants to sell more or better products for less money. Everyone wants to sell less product for more money. Because that's where the bigger profit is. So they don't need to meet in back rooms and set prices. They ALL want to raise them and they all know it. The only question is how quickly, and how much, before the public revolts, or one company edges another one out.
The point is that all this greed together is resulting in the average income being barely enough to survive. How much money the average person can spend to live is what is setting the prices. And that means they will live from paycheck to paycheck until something happens to stop the paychecks. Then they will be kicked to the curb and left to die, literally.
Insofar as there is a relationship between high prices and high wages it is fine. The cost of a commodity should include the cost of keeping the human producers out of poverty.The money to pay people increased wages, better benefits, etc. comes from somewhere. Namely you, dear consumer.
Thoughts?
