People who understand these things, why are prices so high now than before Biden?

[Anonymous]

I was just looking at things I've bought. Why is a McDonald's cheeseburger $3 instead of $1 it was before Biden? What caused it to triple in price? In only 2 years? And it's still on the "Dollar" menu. Why is milk $5 instead of $2 like it was? Why are houses $600,000 instead of $250,000? Why are used cars $15,000 instead of $6,000? Why are AA batteries $25 instead of $9? What has caused all these prices to go up so massively?

[NamerOfStars]

Why did the Spanish empire fall? When it began pushing into the New World, its only real competition was Portugal, which couldn't match it militarily. Eventually, other nations piled in, but Spain was undoubtedly the most successful. Today, it's a fourth-rate power at best. What went wrong? That success.

In bringing down the Incan and Aztec empires, Spain had an almost unbelievable influx of gold. Unfortunately, the value of gold (electroconductivity, which obviously wasn't a factor at the time, notwithstanding) doesn't come from the material, but from the workmanship, since gold is, bluntly, useless, which is the reason WHY it was chosen as a form of currency in so many places.

So Spain got a buttload of money, but no real increase in wealth. So prices rose... and rose... and rose. Hyperinflation kicked in, and their currency collapsed, which left them vulnerable to the predations of their enemies. They literally succeeded their way into failure.

Now, we no longer base our currency on gold, or indeed on any other material thing; the dollar only has value because everyone agrees it has value. Despite what the anti-Federal Reserve nutjobs tell you, that's actually a GOOD thing, because it means that we're not subject to having our currency collapse (or explode, like it did every twenty years when we WERE on the gold standard). Inflation WILL still happen, but the currency will stay relatively stable so long as production of wealth continues and the government pays off its debts. And that, too, is a good thing, since it's not like the entire economy is going to shut down.

Then Covid happened. And the damage that did to the economy was... essentially nonexistent. Covid-19 is less lethal than chicken pox; most people who caught it didn't even KNOW. But the reaction was absolutely insane; governors in 49 of the 50 states told their entire populations to stay at home, with only New Dakota's Noem having the sense to hold off. Naturally, there was no way to enforce this, and "required" places still stayed open, but the message was clear, and so was the effect: the economy, essentially, WAS shut down. For how long? It varies: Florida got back to normal in a matter of weeks; Illinois didn't even start the process until MONTHS had gone by. The initial idea was to "flatten the curve" of the spread of Covid and the consequent wave of hospital admissions, since fewer people would die if the hospitals weren't overwhelmed. When it became obvious that China had VASTLY overstated the danger, and there wasn't going to BE a wave of hospitalization, the restrictions should've ended immediately, with people seeking the disease out, to recover from it and contribute to herd immunity, the only way a pandemic of a very contagious disease with extremely low lethality can end. In Florida, that's pretty much what happened; in California... no.

Now, while all this was happening, the Federal government WAS printing huge amounts of money, mostly in relief funding. A vast increase in money, while the production of wealth was all but stopped. Inflation has kicked in, and quite seriously, and from what I've seen, I strongly suspect the market's being manipulated to make things look far better than they actually are- but I can't prove it, not yet. I'm also down here in Florida where things are bad, but not nearly so much so as much of the rest of the country.

And this is what it boils down to: it's not Biden's fault, not really. I feel for the man a level of seething hatred that mere words can't truly express, but it's precisely because of that hatred that I wish to be fair to him, and so I say that from a financial standpoint, at least, it's not fair to blame him for the inflation we're seeing now; anyone in his place would've had to do the same thing. The blame falls on the governors who shut the states down and the citizens who obeyed them.

[_Maya_]

www.amazon.com/.../ref=mp_s_a_1_1_ffob_sspa

There's a link for batteries if the asker is getting screwed. Less than $25 for 48 of them.

[NamerOfStars]

@_Maya_ Yes, things are nowhere near as bad now as they were for Spain; I hope they never become so bad.

[_Maya_]

@NamerOfStars take me to Spain!

[D_Bone_Steak]

I forgot about those insane lockdowns. I'm just now remembering China has also given us TikTok for the culture wars and Mexico the precursors to make fentanyl and smuggle it in. We still give them money because they're a developing country... WITH A SPACE PROGRAM, and threatening war with us indirectly... just like they pay Biden indirectly I guess. lolz

Anyways... those lockdowns... fucking A. I can't let my bias toward Biden forget about all the people who supposedly voted for him.

[D_Bone_Steak]

The value of our dollar goes down every time he asks for money and they just print new money to get the money. He shut down the oil infrastructure we had for ourselves as soon as he got in... to satisfy the climate change alarmists... and that drives the price of everything up. The average trucker gets hit in the pocket and the price to truck those goods goes up fast. Goofball global politics has also hit us hard and we're on the verge of having a bunch of countries start using some other currency instead of US dollars to buy oil... once that happens... that's when we're going to be really fucked.

Yeah... the more we keep just printing money and injecting it into other countries to make Biden more rich... the actual value of what you have in a savings account just goes down... and the prices of everything go up. We're already fucked... and being in the "know" of that only makes one not appreciate every damn Biden voter there was... even all the dead ones that voted for him... the ones that worship trans people over their own kid's welfare. But as a whole... this is what the people voted for I guess, this is what they wanted. No more mean tweets... with no thought put into why those mean tweets were actually a very, very good thing. Now you get nice friendly trans pride tweets. That's what the people wanted.

[Anonymous]

This isn't just happening in America. This is happening around the world. A small cheeseburger meal where I live, cost almost $8. This time a year ago it like $6.15 Hash browns are like $3.50. A small coke will set you back about $5 from Mcdonalds. Oh and once before we could get free iced water from all McDonald's but I found one McDonald's that wanted to change me $3. I told the manager the iced water is supposed to be free because it is supposed to be free and he said it's not free here.

Groceries have gone up. It's happening around the world sadly.

[petitedollbabee]

Inflation is world wide, I don’t think it’s just because of who your president is. Living costs have gone up significantly in my country since covid started, and my online friends in other countries have noticed the same. Food, gas, rent.. it all goes up, and covid seems to have boosted how quickly it happens.

[Joshydavid25]

Inflation.. There's more money being printed than there are resources.. The lockdowns messed up the economy along with the heavy government spending which causes prices to go up devaluing the dollar because there's more dollars than there are goods.. The government also spending money we don't really have..

[SimpleGreen]

If you and I were shipwrecked on an island, and we both had 40 million bucks... who would pick the coconuts? Paper money was a bad idea, because it's too easy to print. I could offer you 2 million per coconut, but you would just laugh at the offer. We may as well burn our money, and just trade in fish.

[Anonymous]

I thought it was because of Putin and the Russians 🙄🙄🙄🤣