The real reason why everything suddenly became so expensive   
28/04/2023
Australian Unions
How have we landed in this mess? 

Three figure receipts from grocery shops have become normal. Full-time workers have joined the huge numbers of Australians struggling to find housing. And every time the numbers tick up at the petrol pump, you’re reminded why oil is called ‘black gold’.

Actually, we already know how we’ve landed in this mess. It’s profiteering: excess corporate profits are the main driver of how much extra everyday items cost. 

Despite this, CEOs and business lobbyists like to point at the mining sector as an exception and say that’s where all the price hikes are happening. But recent research from The Australia Institute debunks this.

Inflation is no accident
Other than a few industries still recovering from lockdowns (such as hospitality and the arts) non-mining industries’ profits are going strong. 

“Since end-2019, businesses across the non-mining portion of Australia’s economy have increased the prices they charge consumers above and beyond the costs of their own inputs,” states The Australia Institute report. 

“Those excessive price increases have contributed incrementally to inflation, and further skewed the distribution of income away from workers and toward businesses and their owners.”

Or to put it bluntly: major corporations have pumped up prices to rake in more of your money. 

These corporate giants then pretend they’re not intentionally lining their pockets with your wages. Instead, they throw up their hands and say innocently, “Well, who could have predicted this!”

And don’t be fooled by the news that the latest inflation figures have dropped: working people are still under intense cost-of-living pressures after 10 interest rate rises.

And if this all wasn’t cruel enough already, major corporations then turn around and refuse to lift wages for their lowest paid workers. 

Yes, that’s right. Major corporations have a long track record of refusing to increase the minimum wage, no matter how good their profits have been.



Where does that leave workers on minimum wage?
Once a year, the Annual Wage Review is a chance for union members to convince the Fair Work Commission to lift minimum wages. 

When it comes to necessities like housing, even workers on decent incomes are struggling to secure a roof over their heads. That means workers who rely on the minimum wage and Award wages are in an even worse position. 

With no signs of prices for basic items easing anytime soon, Australia’s lowest paid workers need a seven per cent increase to their wages. Especially when many of these employees work for the same companies who have been price-hiking to bulk up profits. 

Unlike massive profits, an increase to the minimum wage would have a negligible impact on inflation, according to the latest research from The Australia Institute. So, yes, companies can afford the seven per cent increase. 

Working people need a lifeline. Union members’ demand for a seven per cent increase to minimum wage is what is needed to keep heads above water.

Quote:


By how much?

And this still doesn't mean that a shortage is not to blame for higher prices.

UnSubRocky wrote on May 2^nd, 2023 at 12:07pm:



Or they were forced to by the terrorists that blew up that pipeline.
Rice is on record years ago saying this was going to happen.

That's the funny thing, the terrorists tell you what they're going to do years in advance.
Team Terrorists, Fkkk yeah.

Gnads wrote on May 3^rd, 2023 at 11:01am:


Is that supposed to be an answer to my question?

What you you buy pre-covid for 20c? Are you sure you aren't thinking back to your childhood?

Are. So the increases are much higher than what they would of been, if they had been much lower?

productivity rises in OZ are at record lows.
just over 1 %.

you cant put a trillion bucks into the economy (money trying to find something to buy)


and not increase productivity (make more things to buy)

without causing price rises.

its supplyn and demand.

if , for example, albo decides to hike jobseeker , then a few hundred thousand dudes have more cash in their wallet.

if they are on job sekker, they , by definition, arent producing anything


so you have extra money trying to buy stuff but no extra stuff.

so prices HAVE to rise.

if the reserve bank puts up interest rates and people have less cash to shop with, then when my cow gets turned into beef and goes to the supermarket, less people can buy it and so it fetches less.

raising interest rates reduces inflation

government spending increases inflation.

the only way to have a higher standard of living is to rpoduce more (productivity).

if i get up at 5 am and clear a paddock and grow more cattle, then i produce more and the price of beef drops ,


so there we have it

wage rises not linked to producing more are of no help in raising living standards

increased production is the only way to get standards of living to rise .

if you are seeing rising prices but not wage rises, then someone is being unproductive.

things like green energy , the NDIS, a lot of covid spending, day care for stay at home mums, military spending, public administration,   are unproductive spending

I heard on the ABC landline show last week that
there has actually been a glut of beef on the market -
yet beef has been as high as $70 a kilo.
The supermarkets have been extorting money.
The farmers have made hardly a penny.
Coles and Safeway/Woolies are all racketeers:

Gordon -

Still $50 per kilo - a rip off.