Democrats Ignored Pleas To Address Price of ‘Eggs and Gas’, Campaigners Say : usa

[–] adarza@lemmy.ca 39 points 2 months ago (3 children)

gas is a commodity, it's price is based on opec oil production, whether we get oil from them or not, along with global demand, the seasons and severity of winters around the world, political bullshit on the other side of the world, and corporate greed.

if you want to lay blame on high prices in the u.s., blame yourselves first for your addiction to large, gas-guzzling vehicles (among other things)... then blame the oil companies, who produce more now than ever before and choose to export at higher prices than they can sell domestically (the u.s. actually exports more than we import).

egg prices have been affected by infected farms and loss of production, and compounded by corporate greed eyeballing opportunities to artificially inflate, and hold high, prices; and they'd rather write-off a culling than spend a dime on preventive measures such as lower density farms or vaccinations (you know how well that would play out with our far-right dominated media these days).

neither can really be controlled by congress or the president. neither is the democrat's fault. neither is biden or harris' fault.

[–] spujb@lemmy.cafe 36 points 2 months ago (1 children)

blame yourselves first for your addiction to large, gas-guzzling vehicles

nah blame the lobbying and abuse of regulations that maintains the status quo of car-reliant infrastructure

[–] adarza@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

if you didn't demand the giant trucks and weren't willing to pay giant premium prices for them; manufacturers wouldn't have the profit-driven motives to make them, focus almost exclusively on them, and cut production and selection of smaller and more affordable vehicles to 'make room' for them in the market.

[–] Tinidril@midwest.social 22 points 2 months ago (1 children)

There are legit regulatory issues that strongly incentivize manufactures to sell giant vehicles. Fuel efficiency standards for larger vehicles are a lot easier to meet. A lot of the demand for larger vehicles is driven by advertising.

Of course people could stop letting corporations drag them around by the nose, but it seems like most of the public still likes it that way.

[–] spujb@lemmy.cafe 15 points 2 months ago

Just to back you up, the regulations you are primarily speaking to are the CAFE standards. While the intent of CAFE standards is to reduce overall emissions and improve energy efficiency, the footprint-based model has led to a proliferation of less efficient, heavier vehicles that contribute to climate change and air pollution.

This was predicted back in 2011, before the standards were even active and it kind of played out exactly as they guessed.

[–] veroxii@aussie.zone 14 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I had this exact conversation several times with Americans while travelling for work in the USA.

Oil prices are up around the world and USA gas prices are actually really cheap compared to everywhere else.

In fact everything is pretty cheap compared to Europe and Australia.

But all they do is whinge and moan and blame Biden.

They have no friggen idea there's a whole wide world out there.

[–] Tinidril@midwest.social 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

To be fair, you are probably not taking into account all the things Americans have to spend money on that are government services elsewhere. Healthcare alone takes a large chunk of American income. By the time people are spending money on groceries, there is often little or no money left.

[–] veroxii@aussie.zone 1 points 2 months ago

I take your point but this was not the case for these people I was talking to. I pay their salaries and health insurance and they still take home 6 figures a year after all deductions.

Then they sit there complaining about gas prices and how Biden is running their lives when it's a worldwide thing and they have it better than 99% of the rest of humanity. Biden can't do shit about world wide issues.

[–] Saleh@feddit.org 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The other day a guy i met from the D.C. area told me that low quality coffee costs 20$ a bag. Fucking pregrinded coffee for the filter machine. You can get the luxury beans for that money in Europe.

[–] hovercat@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Maybe at a more expensive convenience store, or he's like many idiots that shop somewhere like Whole Foods and because they're used to seeing some $70/bag organic free-range non-GMO gluten-free coffee grown in the Himalayas by a small sect of previously uncontacted monks, the "cheap stuff" is the $20 bag of stuff that's similarly overpriced.

The most I've ever paid for coffee in the US was $20/lb at a local artisan roaster, where they're blended and roasted right in the store. Usually my normal coffee is about $3-5/lb

[–] Saleh@feddit.org 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The guy is from an immigrant family, and his parents until recently worked minimum wage. It is just that the cost of living in Washington D.C. got this outrageous.

[–] hovercat@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Then sadly, knowing how a lot of my friends shopped when they were broke, I bet that it is something like a convenience store. Not saying that DC isn't expensive, I was literally just there visiting a friend who lives there, but I also live in an area with a CoL well above the national average and coffee still isn't $20 for cheap pre-ground stuff

[–] jatone@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

neither can really be controlled by congress or the president. neither is the democrat’s fault. neither is biden or harris’ fault.

False. just straight up false. you literally straight up mentioned things to address some of the problems in your post. But besides that congress absolutely can pass laws that penalize companies for profiteering and then enforce them.

Pass a law making CEO/board members personally liable w/ jail time for a company's profiteering on food prices and watch what happens at even the wiff of a federal investigation.

Now tell me how many democrats supported bernie's windfall bill?

[–] Tinidril@midwest.social 2 points 2 months ago

How exactly do you make raising profit margins illegal? You can do it for natural disasters and such, but companies raising prices when the market allows is just what all companies do all the time.

The government is capable of addressing these issues, but not by making profiteering illegal. They need to break up monopolies, vertical integration, and certain trade associations. They also need to address short term performance pay for CEOs. Any performance pay should be tied to company performance over at least the next ten years, not this quarter.

[–] suburban_hillbilly@lemmy.ml 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Hey look, another person getting the turnout question completely fucking wrong.

Relative to 2020, turnout was UP in swing states.
Trump led irregular/independant/politically disinterested voters by double digits.

A 100% turnout would not only not have changed the result, but probably would have produced an even larger Trump victory.

[–] The_Che_Banana 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

And also avoiding the fact they were rolling support behind the literal walking corpse of the status quo while people were demanding the status quo change.

The Democrats have become the party of complicity (good cop) while the Republicans move the agenda to where the government/those in power want it to be (bad cop).

[–] p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The Democrats have become the party of complicity (good cop) while the Republicans move the agenda to where the government/those in power want it to be (bad cop).

This is false equivalency in sheep's clothing

[–] The_Che_Banana 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Then why is it there is always just 1 republican holding up the works whenever they want? Tommy Rubber I'll the great Traitor from Alafuckintbama held up how many promotions for the US military while the Party of Complicity sat on their hands and cliñutched pearls.

I am so absolutely tired of the Dems getting steamrolled by another party that holds nobody accountable and passes their policies with impunity....all while the Dems 'take the high road'.

Now, it's too late, and they will play the part of the injured lamb until all their progressive programs are gutted.

Throw your pop culture phrases in the toilet along with your social security, because that's gonna go too.

[–] p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Bitching that both parties are bad doesn't solve anything. It's just demotivates the rest of the public from actually exercising the one power they have: voting.

Of course, none of this even matters, considering the public have already spoken and they want corpo-facism.

[–] The_Che_Banana 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's not a both sides argument, really, when one is absolutely horrible and the only party that has the power to stop their bullshit does nothing but move their agenda to the right in the hopes of converting voters.

Ranked choice voting and the breakup of the 2 party system which only benefits the American oligarchy is the only way forward.

[–] p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 months ago

Ranked choice voting and the breakup of the 2 party system which only benefits the American oligarchy is the only way forward.

That's a pretty unreasonable goal, considering that would require a 2/3rds majority and agreement on both parties that they want to gut their own system.

[–] kandoh@reddthat.com 11 points 2 months ago

Democrats Won Highly Engaged Voters: In the 2024 presidential election, Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party successfully retained support from frequent and highly engaged voters. However, they struggled to connect with less-engaged voters, where Donald Trump held a significant lead[1].
Democratic Assumptions Challenged: The election results challenged several Democratic assumptions, such as the belief that increased voter turnout favors them. In 2024, Republicans benefited from mobilizing less-engaged voters[2].
Demographic Shifts: Democrats faced difficulties with working-class and non-college-educated voters, while Trump expanded his support among these groups and in urban areas[2][3].

Citations: [1] Democrats won 'highly engaged' voters and struggled with everyone else in 2024 https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/democrats-won-highly-engaged-voters-struggled-everyone-else-2024-rcna179957 [2] 5 Democratic assumptions shattered by the 2024 election: From the Politics Desk https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/democratic-assumptions-shattered-2024-election-politics-desk-rcna181725 [3] What Voters Told Democrats in 2024 https://www.thirdway.org/memo/what-voters-told-democrats-in-2024

[–] detectivemittens 10 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I call bullshit on this narrative when the other side of the equation is the guy screaming about tariffs on our largest trade partners.

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The other guy is fucking insane and his voters like it. Those people were never going to vote anything other than Republican and it makes no sense to bring them up in a conversation about Democrat failures.

[–] whithom@discuss.online 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

The new trend will be to focus on how the democrats failed. It’s a tactic. Redirecting anger, and the media, to the wrong thing so that the real problem groups operate unnoticed.

Remember how lemmy was ablaze with “Genocide Joe?” Keep an eye on the ML and hexbears, as the usually ride the maga train.

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Remember how lemmy was ablaze with “Genocide Joe?”

I mean people don't hate him any less for it; it just lost relevance because he stepped down as the presidential nominee.

[–] whithom@discuss.online 2 points 2 months ago

Then why is anyone still talking about Biden? Time to move on.

[–] detectivemittens 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It’ll definitely be a pivot to how the Democrats failed and how everything is their fault when the tariffs kick in and the price of everything skyrockets.

[–] whithom@discuss.online 1 points 2 months ago

Right. Blame someone else. The American way.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 months ago

It helps when the people don't know what a tariff is so they can literally just lie about they will do.

[–] bquintb@midwest.social 8 points 2 months ago

The average shmoe doesn't give a f if the stock market is doing well if the groceries are high. Democrats could have addressed this asap and would have been better off come November. But anytime I said that I got yelled at how the economy is doing good..oh well, enjoy the fascism.

[–] jerkface@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Petroleum and animal products should both be expensive. Stop fucking killing me and the individuals I love.

[–] Garibaldee@lemm.ee 2 points 2 months ago

I agree, but that's a different issue than changing people's consumption. Ignoring that things people consume have increased in price and not doing anything about it is effectively just a lower standard of living. It would be received very poorly if any political party tried to get rid of subsidies for fuel/animal products, you would need levels of state control comparable to the Soviet Union or another socialist country to get people to change their consumption to that degree. In capitalism consumption is many people's primary identity and it would take a lot of deprogramming to change that. This is to an extent going on and many climate groups are doing a good job getting people more comfortable with the idea of veganism/shifting away from fossil fuels, but saying you have less money in your bank account and that's a good thing because maybe you'll change your habits to avoid climate change would have resulted in a 50 state blow out, you will never get people on your side operating like that.

United States | News &amp; Politics

United States | News & Politics