You are not wrong, you just left something big out, ecological degradation. Globally our economies have extracted renewable natural resources at a faster rate than they can replace themselves. The economy is dependent on the ecosystems within which in operates. Now this system is global. Degradation arises because we have allowed corporations (producers of goods) to externalize the costs and internalize the profits. Unregulated capitalism ignores or deliberately destroys the underlying source of materials and labor that are the main inputs of the good produced. Inflation is a function of demand and scarcity, which corporations can manipulate to their advantage. Remember that the economy has four inputs: capital (the only thing corporations care about); labor, which is a cost capitalists always try to minimize; resources, including renewable and non-renewable items like timber and steel; and energy, which has its own externalized cost known as climate change. Inflation is caused, at least in part, by the reduction in supply of these resources because corporations don't replace what they extract, and they refuse to acknowledge the damage their extraction and energy use cause.
It has always bothered me that the cost to the environment is never factored in the true cost of things. I respect how Bhutan measures DGP in happiness. We should be doing somethin akin to that when factoring the cost of things. Oil is WAY more expensive than 5 bucks a gallon.
I am 86 years old. When I was a toddler my mother paid 5 cents for a loaf of bread. When I was 6 my father bought a 4 bedroom home for $15,000. It isn't just inflation, it is enslavement of the population by corporations and the wealthy. Soon all children will have to work too so the family can eat.
You are not wrong, you just left something big out, ecological degradation. Globally our economies have extracted renewable natural resources at a faster rate than they can replace themselves. The economy is dependent on the ecosystems within which in operates. Now this system is global. Degradation arises because we have allowed corporations (producers of goods) to externalize the costs and internalize the profits. Unregulated capitalism ignores or deliberately destroys the underlying source of materials and labor that are the main inputs of the good produced. Inflation is a function of demand and scarcity, which corporations can manipulate to their advantage. Remember that the economy has four inputs: capital (the only thing corporations care about); labor, which is a cost capitalists always try to minimize; resources, including renewable and non-renewable items like timber and steel; and energy, which has its own externalized cost known as climate change. Inflation is caused, at least in part, by the reduction in supply of these resources because corporations don't replace what they extract, and they refuse to acknowledge the damage their extraction and energy use cause.
It has always bothered me that the cost to the environment is never factored in the true cost of things. I respect how Bhutan measures DGP in happiness. We should be doing somethin akin to that when factoring the cost of things. Oil is WAY more expensive than 5 bucks a gallon.
💯 I find myself using that word "enslavement" EVERY day when talking about our system. You are so right!
I am 86 years old. When I was a toddler my mother paid 5 cents for a loaf of bread. When I was 6 my father bought a 4 bedroom home for $15,000. It isn't just inflation, it is enslavement of the population by corporations and the wealthy. Soon all children will have to work too so the family can eat.
You're not wrong about any of this. I graduated in 1979 and I've watched this happen and lived with the consequences.
System wide climate jobs, solidarity and clear leadership ahoy!