What if I told you that the 3-4 corporations that control our food supply increased prices to punish voters for not voting for a Republican in 2020? It’s been in the playbook for well over 30 years. Some musicians have even written songs with lyrics that discuss this technique.
That’s asking for a lot of sources and a compilation of research as to how I came to my inference on an internet comment. I don’t have the time to accommodate all of that, but this article touches on the corporate greed aspect somewhat concisely: https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/price-of-food
Songs regarding what I’m talking about… off the top of my head the one I think of first is Propaghandi - “A People’s History of the World.” The last lyrics:
*"Yeah, you can vote however the fuck you want
But power still calls all the shots
And believe it or not
Even if democracy broke loose
They’ll just make the economy scream
Until we vote responsibly"*
I also think of Fugazi - “Merchandise”
*
“Merchandise, it keeps us in line
Common sense says it’s by design
What could a businessman ever want more
Than to have us sucking in his store”*
At first my brain started assuming you were just memeing a monologue from Deus Ex, then I realized this was an original comment all original text. How sad is that? Lol
…just without the neat cyberpunk stuff.
And this was the game written on the unbelievable, edgy premise “…where every conspiracy theory is real.” Lol
Edit: lol weird ratio. Okay maybe I was a clumsy communicator there, I meant “How sad is it that my first thought was a Deus Ex monologue perfectly fitting with our current times, but we don’t even have sweet nanotech”.
Also, that game’s premise was trying to be just a little bit dystopianly-ridiculous, and it’s now considered prophetic.
Definitely some greed. One grocery store here charges 50% more than the other just because (imagine: it’s a Kroger owned store). Neither store is a discount or lower-end store either. Ridiculous.
And coincidentally (or no really coincidentally at all), OP’s pic looks like a Kroger owned store too based on the price tag and the inconvenience sticker. Shocker that they’d charge that price 🙄
I don’t think corporate greed is a poor excuse though.
All prices in the UK have gone up by substantial amounts over the last 5 years. While at the same time these massive corporations have recorded record profits.
If the price increases were purely inflation then it would stand to reason that profits wouldn’t have gone up so much. Clearly they’ve used inflation as an excuse to squeeze consumers as much as possible.
I am talking generally here and not specifically about eggs.
Is it truly your belief that corporations were not greedy over the last 15 years, but somehow got really greedy at the same time that there were major supply chain shocks across the planet? Or is it more likely that “corporate greed” is a more enticing answer to a complex economic problem?
If the price increases were purely inflation then it would stand to reason that profits wouldn’t have gone up so much
During inflation, the value of EVERYTHING goes up. Companies pull in more money because money is not worth as much as it was
Oh you’re misunderstanding me. I’m not saying corporations started being greedy over the last 5 years. I’m saying that they turned up the dial as far as they could. They’ve always been greedy.
By greedy I mean they have to extra t value for shareholders. Then you have pensions, UK at least, tied to the stock market making it almost impossible to change the system due to the fact we need to account for the elderly and we refuse to increase taxes by a substantial amount on obscene wealth.
The prices are caused by inflation, massive cullings of infected hens with bird flu, and just the area you live in. Where I’m at, eggs are $4.50 USD/dozen at the moment. They’ve been higher though.
Those eggs specifically look to be “cage-free”, which increases their price by a little bit.
Colorado law only allows for cage free eggs as of January 1st of this year and had mostly already been all that’s available here prior to this bird flu epidemic for maybe 6ish months and prices were not increased significantly as a result.
Regardless, this picture represents an extreme and not the least expensive eggs available at this particular store.
Not necessarily better. My uni did experiments to see how far a chicken moved after being put in a free range pen, and they hardly move. Such pens are large and contain hundreds if not 1000s of chickens. (We tend to imagine free range as 15 hens in a flock, but that is miles away from the truth) Hypothesis was that since Chicken are flock animals they get stressed in these pens and the weaker ones now are on the outside of multiple flocks leading to more stress and feather picking as dominance never really are settled. Roomy cages with proper perches and such paradoxically might be “better” for industrially farmed chicken.
The terminology on the various bird conditions is frustrating and confusing. Cage free can effectively be exactly what you described - entirely indoors, crammed in and miserable, but not in cages. Free Range birds must have “access to the outdoors” but that can be as small as a hole they can stick their head out of but not go through. It’s honestly ridiculous.
If you buy grocery store eggs, I would recommend looking for the Certified Humane stamp on eggs and other farm products and meats. While the conditions they require are still far from idyllic, they are better than the general standards most livestock exist in. For chickens, pasture raised certified humane is a good option as birds must be let fully outside into the pasture, must have a minimum of 10 square meters per bird when out there, and must be allowed out for a minimum of 6 hours per day. At least in these conditions, they can reasonably be birds and touch grass. There are a lot of other requirements as well, including perches and dust baths. Ideally if you can afford the extra couple of dollars, these are good companies to support. (There are also other 3rd party companies that certify pasture raised eggs, the Certified Humane one is just most common in my area).
~~ Upstate NY and a dozen is between 8-9 dollars last I looked. ~~
I apologize, that’s the 18 pack. I was reminded we got charged the 18 pack price but only had a 12. That was a four hour later going over the receipt find. This was a Price Chopper outside of Albany.
What’s the thing with eggs in the US ?
My understanding is mostly a bird flu but also inflation.
It’s ok, though. Trump has installed a loyalist who will scrub all mention of bird flu from the USDA website. Problem solved!
Look how well it worked out at the FAA!
“SLOW THE TEATING DOWN, PLEASE.”
Actual inflation or inflation mixed with greedy price increases?
What if I told you that the 3-4 corporations that control our food supply increased prices to punish voters for not voting for a Republican in 2020? It’s been in the playbook for well over 30 years. Some musicians have even written songs with lyrics that discuss this technique.
Do you have any sources for this? Also the songs that mention it? I’d like to read more about this
Sources for my claim?
That’s asking for a lot of sources and a compilation of research as to how I came to my inference on an internet comment. I don’t have the time to accommodate all of that, but this article touches on the corporate greed aspect somewhat concisely: https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/price-of-food
https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/COST/costco/revenue - is a good way to look at profits at a high level for the 4 major grocers (Walmart, Kroger, Costco, Albertsons) - https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/IB_2111_FoodMonoSeries1-SUPERMARKETS-V2FINAL.pdf. This touches more on the aspect of food monopolies specifically: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2021/jul/14/food-monopoly-meals-profits-data-investigation - the monopolies go beyond just food.
Songs regarding what I’m talking about… off the top of my head the one I think of first is Propaghandi - “A People’s History of the World.” The last lyrics:
*"Yeah, you can vote however the fuck you want But power still calls all the shots And believe it or not
Even if democracy broke loose They’ll just make the economy scream Until we vote responsibly"*
I also think of Fugazi - “Merchandise” * “Merchandise, it keeps us in line Common sense says it’s by design What could a businessman ever want more Than to have us sucking in his store”*
At first my brain started assuming you were just memeing a monologue from Deus Ex, then I realized this was
an original commentall original text. How sad is that? Lol…just without the neat cyberpunk stuff.
And this was the game written on the unbelievable, edgy premise “…where every conspiracy theory is real.” Lol
Edit: lol weird ratio. Okay maybe I was a clumsy communicator there, I meant “How sad is it that my first thought was a Deus Ex monologue perfectly fitting with our current times, but we don’t even have sweet nanotech”.
Also, that game’s premise was trying to be just a little bit dystopianly-ridiculous, and it’s now considered prophetic.
Ah, you got me. 😂
Okay my turn, since I mentioned it. Hahaha
Yes.
Definitely some greed. One grocery store here charges 50% more than the other just because (imagine: it’s a Kroger owned store). Neither store is a discount or lower-end store either. Ridiculous.
And coincidentally (or no really coincidentally at all), OP’s pic looks like a Kroger owned store too based on the price tag and the inconvenience sticker. Shocker that they’d charge that price 🙄
Why not both?
Indeed!
In this case it’s a commodity so that’s actually hard to do.
It’s just inflation. Corporate greed is a poor excuse for price increases
It’s actually just corporate greed. The “inflation” is the excuse.
So it’s your opinion that corporations were not greedy before 2020?
Ok thanks.
I don’t think corporate greed is a poor excuse though.
All prices in the UK have gone up by substantial amounts over the last 5 years. While at the same time these massive corporations have recorded record profits.
If the price increases were purely inflation then it would stand to reason that profits wouldn’t have gone up so much. Clearly they’ve used inflation as an excuse to squeeze consumers as much as possible.
I am talking generally here and not specifically about eggs.
Is it truly your belief that corporations were not greedy over the last 15 years, but somehow got really greedy at the same time that there were major supply chain shocks across the planet? Or is it more likely that “corporate greed” is a more enticing answer to a complex economic problem?
During inflation, the value of EVERYTHING goes up. Companies pull in more money because money is not worth as much as it was
Oh you’re misunderstanding me. I’m not saying corporations started being greedy over the last 5 years. I’m saying that they turned up the dial as far as they could. They’ve always been greedy.
By greedy I mean they have to extra t value for shareholders. Then you have pensions, UK at least, tied to the stock market making it almost impossible to change the system due to the fact we need to account for the elderly and we refuse to increase taxes by a substantial amount on obscene wealth.
The prices are caused by inflation, massive cullings of infected hens with bird flu, and just the area you live in. Where I’m at, eggs are $4.50 USD/dozen at the moment. They’ve been higher though.
Those eggs specifically look to be “cage-free”, which increases their price by a little bit.
We got cage free organic at 6.19/dozen here in Ohio. This seems a localized high
Colorado law only allows for cage free eggs as of January 1st of this year and had mostly already been all that’s available here prior to this bird flu epidemic for maybe 6ish months and prices were not increased significantly as a result.
Regardless, this picture represents an extreme and not the least expensive eggs available at this particular store.
In Germany, you can’t even buy eggs from cage farming anymore.
Not necessarily better. My uni did experiments to see how far a chicken moved after being put in a free range pen, and they hardly move. Such pens are large and contain hundreds if not 1000s of chickens. (We tend to imagine free range as 15 hens in a flock, but that is miles away from the truth) Hypothesis was that since Chicken are flock animals they get stressed in these pens and the weaker ones now are on the outside of multiple flocks leading to more stress and feather picking as dominance never really are settled. Roomy cages with proper perches and such paradoxically might be “better” for industrially farmed chicken.
The terminology on the various bird conditions is frustrating and confusing. Cage free can effectively be exactly what you described - entirely indoors, crammed in and miserable, but not in cages. Free Range birds must have “access to the outdoors” but that can be as small as a hole they can stick their head out of but not go through. It’s honestly ridiculous.
If you buy grocery store eggs, I would recommend looking for the Certified Humane stamp on eggs and other farm products and meats. While the conditions they require are still far from idyllic, they are better than the general standards most livestock exist in. For chickens, pasture raised certified humane is a good option as birds must be let fully outside into the pasture, must have a minimum of 10 square meters per bird when out there, and must be allowed out for a minimum of 6 hours per day. At least in these conditions, they can reasonably be birds and touch grass. There are a lot of other requirements as well, including perches and dust baths. Ideally if you can afford the extra couple of dollars, these are good companies to support. (There are also other 3rd party companies that certify pasture raised eggs, the Certified Humane one is just most common in my area).
~~ Upstate NY and a dozen is between 8-9 dollars last I looked. ~~
I apologize, that’s the 18 pack. I was reminded we got charged the 18 pack price but only had a 12. That was a four hour later going over the receipt find. This was a Price Chopper outside of Albany.
Where in upstate? They’re $4 everywhere Ive seen them.
Updated.
Yep I’m near Delaware so we have all the chicken farms at least near us. And our eggs are $4.5 for a dozen.