My mum is allergic to apples and oranges. Apple is one of the cheapest juices. She gets periods of hypoglycaemia, most effectively treated with juice. The juices she's traditionally bought for this have slowly been replaced with stuff that is the same but the ingredients show it's mostly apple juice. It used to be that more than half of the juice in the grocery aisle would've suited her needs as there would be things like mango juice, pineapple juice, grape juice, etc. Now the mango juice has apple, the pineapple juice has apple, the grape juice has apple, and the berry punch has apple. I know it's a very niche situation for this one specifically, but it's something I've heard from other people with other allergies as well, anyone unlucky enough to be allergic to a cheap ingredient has seen their options in the grocery store get chipped away at as companies choose to substitute ingredients that were previously fine for cheaper ingredients that could cause serious reactions.
The problem is that maintaining the same amount of profit is considered a failure, success is only measured in increased profit. Infinite growth is impossible, and these are the resulting problems caused by that fact.
@@levansegnaro4637You mean the thing every country in the world had to do to offset a global pandemic? I don’t understand how people are seemingly forgetting this happened.
Thanks for the offer but for now the channel is not making any money so I can’t I good conscious hire anybody without being able to give them some level of job security
@@GunsForEveryoneIsaacAnd I don’t think any administration would change it to be honest. Companies have big influence in the US and Canada, funding politicians’ campaigns so they can’t really implement laws against them or those companies will fund their political rival. It sounds dystopian but that’s capitalism.
@@Acro_YT you right. But I think certain decisions can make it even worse. This is about playing with a bad hand and I think some stupid people up top are gonna go all in
Broadly agree, but I'd like to make a small, but important distinction. The pandemic didn't destroy the small businesses. The *response* to the pandemic did. It wasn't that Covid came along and there was just no saving small businesses, lockdowns and distancing were active choices. Now whether or not you think these choices did enough good to offset the misery created in their wake is another story. These aren't inscrutible 8th order consequences of those policies, however. The rise in wealth inequality and the mass destruction of small businesses was an obvious side effect of those policies. Really, there should have been a discussion about them at the time, but here in the western world, we like to take an emotional stand on things and ignore anything that doesn't support that emotional decision.
I swear I’ve been seeing this in clothing too. Linen blends are priced at the same items that full linen items once were, sweaters that are fully acrylic are charging wool prices, and now everything is full of synthetic fibers
And thrifting only works for so long. We'll eventually run out of good quality older stuff and it'll all be glorified plastic clothes and fast fashion crap.
Hell, I've even calculated that for my specific situation it would be way better value if I just take up sewing as a hobby. Even after buying a sewing machine and good materials I will be saving money after like 7 linen shirts or one(!) singular wool jacket. tf's next, weaving our own cloth?
I can clearly track the fact my dollar has halved in the past 10 years. I live very minimally. Buying whats cheapest to survive and skimping on luxuries, not paying anything for subscriptions or entertainment. And I spend twice what I did 10 years ago to survive. I dont need experts or economists to lie to my face and tell me Im actually only paying 18% more than 10 years ago. I have the bank records to say otherwise.
yeah legit, the idea that it's partially our fault can only be held by the kind of person who is able to get subscriptions and forget about them until they auto renew. many people do not do that, like you I do not use any subscription services or anything like that, my only expenses are rent, food and clothing. and it has gotten so much more expensive.
@@russianbear0027 I mean your online banking records will have things left out when compared to a print out you ask for at the bank. As for proof, do you want a screenshot of my banking app and statement? Cause I'm not giving you one.
Yep I've noticed. The last few yrs actually, maybe back to the pandemic. But literally almost everything taste different or is made different. Flipping up charging, and as long as we keep buying they'll keep selling us less and less. But Ido remember Michael Obama made serving portions smaller, so more air. Our govt doesn't care about us. Preservatives and by-products baby
Chocolate bars taste like crap now unless you get one made in Europe. American chocolate tastes like wax. And it's not just me. Some random guy heard me say this to a friend and he stopped and joined the conversation. He never heard the first part where I compared it to wax and he said "It tastes like wax!"
Whenever you heard about "the future" as a kid in media, of course capitalism is never considered because that'd make kids actually look at the greed and abuse they're inundated with every single day. Can't have kids being wise to the SCAM that capitalism actually is. Then they won't grow into good little corporate consumers.
@@joemama1691 Yep. The economy is so deeply interconnected that it can be difficult for people to conceptualize how and why things are going wrong. This video got the "how" right on the money. The "why" they clearly didn't understand, mentioning greed and technology then moving on to other matters. Greed is a constant, therefore unlikely to drive this kind of dynamic change. POLICY has been driving it. Since the days of Aristotle tyranny has, time and again, proven to be financially disastrous.
Businesses have been fracturing relationships with their employees (layoffs, not giving proper raises, etc) as well as fracturing relationships with their customers. None of this eroded trust is good for society.
Yeah, Volkswagen for example straight up fired a lot of their staff and wanted to close down one of their factories in Germany as they "couldn't afford it" while paying out 2.5 Billion to shareholders just weeks before. It's ridiculous.
I've also noticed something that I'd like to describe as fake or forced innovation. There's not really much to improve on a product that's already working as well as it reasonably can, but for the sake of sales and job security, will receive updates despite there not being any need for it. Let's take TH-cam for example, what really changed in the last few years besides advertisement business models? Not much. Yet there are people working in the UI department, releasing useless updates to change the look of TH-cam slightly. They round off the corners a little, change the colour of the progress bar just slightly or move around the buttons so you have to look for them after 20 years of them being in the same place. It's absolutely ridiculous. Now when the narrator says "please like and subscribe", the actual subscribe button underneath the video is highlighted, as if we couldn't find it before. It looks cool, but it's absolutely useless and is only there to give the people at TH-cam headquarters something to do. I can name a million things, like rain detectors on cars or having your phone tell you when your dishwasher is done. It's all useless "innovation".
The current UI update on mobile has made the app significantly worse and extremely buggy. I never seen youtube being so buggy to a point where you literally can't continue to watch videos because of it
As someone who has been on teams responsible for what you're complaining about, I'm not about to say I wasn't in charge of defending job security, but the testing conducted showed that small seemingly insignificant changes dramatically improved KPI's. Like sometimes by up to ~15%. I'm talking just something like a confetti animation in the right place makes a BIG difference on an aggregate user base. It may not change your personal habits, but it does change enough to where you can justify employing quarter million dollars per year developers who's only real output is changing the UI a bit or writing blog posts about things they tried and didn't work. Scaling things is weird and sometimes backwards to what you would expect.
The term there is the Rot economy. And there is a wonderful piece digesting it here, using the fake innovation of AI as an example: th-cam.com/video/T8ByoAt5gCA/w-d-xo.html
And they actually took away the ability to change resolution preferences precisely, so now you have to adjust for each video if you’re concerned about lag and buffering while traveling. This has probably led to a few fatal accidents now that I think more about it. Need to go to the advanced tab. Lol
@@Pyxis10 Funny enough it looks like properly functioning communism and socialism to. Seems like you let corrupted people in to rule (which always happens) you get the same result. Only plus is capitalism you don't start starving and with zero tech advancements. Yes, all of that is historically verifiable and well documented. There needs to be a better system.
Tldw: Incomes have been so stagnant for so long that companies can no longer compete on quality, and instead compete on price, market cap, and new avenues of exploitation.
Well geee, thats what happens when u dont give employees a raise that can keep up with costs of living. Yknow, employees that are also your main customer base?
I feel it at my workplace too. One sudden layoff wave right after an already terrible layoff wave. Now, we're short handed, but relief is on the way. In the form of more outsourcing. And once a crapton of money was spent onboarding the new team members that have about 1/5 the living costs and therefore can afford to work for 1/4 the money, we are under no illusions what will happen next.
"should people be expected to have comprehensive knowledge in building standards?'" If you're buying a building, yes - you have to know what the best practices are and inspect your purchase before you buy.
It’s funny how many people are completely clueless to this. I’m so happy I live in a place where I’m *still* allowed to grow my own food in my backyard. Or rather in my parent’s backyard, because there’s no way I’ll ever make enough money to buy a house. Sorry for the tangent. Remember to plant and save trees 🌳- they are literally keeping you alive and well 24/7
While the whole situation is depressing, what's even more sad is the lack of accountability companies are facing for hiking up prices with literally made-up reasons.
Man TH-cam really didn't want anyone to see this video. I was wondering when someone would finally make a video on this topic. You deserve way more subs man!
Companies aren't limited to inflation or shitflation; they're like "why not both???" I bought a Dell Laptop barely over a year ago for $700 and the damned hard drive completely failed after an update. Or companies that used to have high quality but relatively affordable things now do the opposite with low-quality expensive garbage.
It has nothing to do with the brand. Computer manufacturers are all using the same parts and components suppliers to assemble their final products. Same as it has been for the past 40 years...
the worst one for me was milky bar chocolate, I swear to god, that shit was so good when I was a kid, now it just tastes like white advent calendar chocolate, it just hits different, and not in a good way
The worst offender for me has been Snickers. They went from a well balanced flavor delight that melted in your mouth with some peanuts to now being a flavorless, dry yet sticky mush that sticks everywhere with mostly peanuts.
When you got to cars I instantly thought of Jeep. They used to be cheap cars that wouldn’t bankrupt you when it inevitably broke. Now they charge up to six figures, break if you sneeze on them, and aren’t cheap to take care of.
Yeah I have a 2001 Cherokee. If I paid a mechanic for every issue I would be screwed but the thing will just handle my awful mechanic work and keep running so I’ve just fixed it myself for 7+ years. Wish it got better mileage but having no car payment is nice
I blame useless MBA people & stock owner focused world view that was started by Jack Welch (GE CEO). And don't get me started with the "companies cannot invest without stock owners" If companies would divert the money from divident payments into investing into the operation, there would be much less need for bank loans and stock listings. Companies should be allowed and recommended to save up money for a larger investment (a new factory)
high corporate taxes in the states (70%+) used to incentivize internal investment and better benefits for employees. also stock buy backs were illegal before reagan
Companies are good. Issue is shareholders and "shareholder" means hedge fund corporation. Every major US brand that fell flat in recent decades was bought by a hedge fund. Well, that's part of the issue. Monopolization is also huge problem, as it stopped working but consumers don't want, or maybe can't, get better, more expensive items. Myself, I'm always choosing what's less "shitty" quality item, and what's not a total rip-off not worth its price... Annoying to say the least.
My Chinese stuff without a middleman has been better than my Chinese stuff with a local middleman so far. Local middlemen often don't listen to their people.
Who would have thought that building a society and with that the whole economy around ppl always trying to gain on each other as much as possible will lead to here ? Maybe, greed is not good after all.
Unfortunately, the alternative to capitalism is mass famine and the most horrific authoritarian regimes in human history. The solution is not trying to legislate morality, as that leads to authoritarianism, but as a society to embrace the values that lead some of us to give employees generous holiday bonuses, paid family leave, charitable giving, and general kindness.
Good vid. I would just add the whole issue of planned obsolescence, with companies designing things to break asap so we buy more, which is basically the whole business model of consumerist capitalism
@@CTimmerman it's not a bug, though; it's a feature of the current economic system. Any company that would produce stuff which doesn't break down will go out of business. From fashion to light bulbs, the imperative is SELL MORE
@@asafcohen3272 Or innovate. Soon Chinese labor cost inflation might move sock production to Africa, freeing labor for construction that doesn't crush people and persecuting those responsible for shoddy construction. Once we have fully automated luxury space communism, we can watch the noble savages duke it out on holodisplays while feeding on mega buckets of snacks.
@@timop6340 I don't think Duracell and Hengwei have the same parent company, but management can be less of a roadblock in some companies. Also, my comment about UBI disappeared, @asafcohen3272
I do wonder how much of this is caused by each level of the supply chain worsening their standards and that it isn't just hard for consumers to find quality products but every level of the supply chain is impacted by the downstream ripple effects of those below them. I know that this is at least partially the case for people buying fabric to make clothing. They had been using the same company for decades and it got worse recently, they talked to the wholesaler for fabrics who said that they themselves noticed that they were having greater losses in storage because the quality was worse than it used to and that there wasn't a single supplier they could recommend buying from them that would definitely do better and that they themselves were searching for new factories to buy from but the factories themselves were saying they were having issues with the quality of the their wool, cotton, linen etc.
I haven't had a long career, but I have to wonder if material standards were always this low. My last company would occasionally get batches of steel that were to spec. Those were good weels. Normally they'd get garbage with bad properties and bad dimensions. My current company doesn't have that problem, when they get an entire batch of trash it's the exception rather than the rule, but shouldn't errors be one-offs rather than 'whoopsie we fucked up the cut on 500 bars'? Why are the foundries sending out literal crates full of steel that was made wrong? So at least it's not just the consumer (you) that's suffering. It might be every consumer everywhere, no matter how significant. Awesome!
At first when asked to subscribe I was like: "Maybe If I like the other videos" but then I looked at his channel and I realized I already watched all of them.
I remember when cheese its were good. They had cheese baked in them and would turn a paper towel slightly greasy. Now they are cardboard. Much of fast food has the same issue too which is why I stopped eating it
Last few times went to shop for some clothes for me. Total garbage quality products everywhere. All these shops full of stuff giving impression of wealth and choice in reality nothing but garbage selling points.
If you can only get cheap garbage clothes from the store then the only option that remains is to start getting things tailored again. It'll cost more but last way longer making it cheaper in the long run.
Has anyone else noticed that car fuel has also lowered in quality? Look at the exhaust tips of random cars, old and new models, they are now always covered in black soot and when people accelerate there is a slight puff of grey smoke. Normally this would indicate a problem with the car but it’s happening to most cars now. Leading me to believe that the quality of fuel is not the same.
It's possible you're witnessing people keeping cars on the road longer than they used to. And some are probably not bothering to maintain them, or can't afford to. As far as I know, the federal standards for gasoline formulation haven't changed.
As I understand it, the standards for fuel blends are very tightly regulated and managed, in most developed countries anyway. A couple other things this could be: 1. At least in colder places, fuel gets switched over to 'winter blend' which doesn't burn as cleanly. 2. Water vapor is a bi-product of the combustion process, so if an engine is running at high RPM before the exhaust pipe is hot up you might see a puff of steam mixed in with the exhaust or even liquid water running out of the tailpipe.
More Perfect Union just recently released a video about how the greed of business conglomerates is threatening peoples lives as CVS staff is overworked and stretched thin. Highly recommend it.
A lot of this comes down to the cost of researching which-purchases-are-good-value being higher than the cost of getting a suboptimal product or service. Every consumer interacts with a ton of different suppliers of goods and services, but every seller only interacts with one pool of customers. This makes it feasible for the seller to research how to to optimze value extraction, while it is infeasible for the consumer to do the same for every category.
I refuse to believe there are a mere 71 subs. (72 now). This is so comprehensive, bringing big terms we're never taught about in school into a way we can consume and, even if it makes no difference immediately, feel more comfortable with, courtesy your help of explaining these otherwise unexplained/inaccesible topics. In a slightly unusual way of a compliment, I hope your channel grows so advertisers fight for exposure to your audience, which I hope will be large.
So in order to counter shitflation as a purchaser we have to bring an insanely long of checklists, rivalling those of the mechanics, just to buy a car. Have always been. In steel construction here in my nation, we have a very proud tradition of reducing 1mm (or 0.01mm) of base material thickness every few years, with branding names and every standards brokered to justify the change. It's pretty insane when a supplier I trusted for years suddenly measures differently. Literally drove me insane with paranoia for a few weeks.
It’s time consuming I know. My wife and I both work, but at least we don’t need two jobs each BUT. Cook your food from scratch as much as possible. Control the ingredients in your food.
This is why I never buy new things, all my stuff is 20+ years old. Things are poorly made and aren’t designed to the same standards. I can’t do anything about food though. If Hershey adds even more wax to their chocolate flavored wax ideally you could switch brands, but they all do that, Cadburry, Nestle, Ghirardelli, it’s all chocolate flavored wax.
Ironically, here in the states our chocolate needs to have cocoa butter in it by law. So hersheys actually can't make their stuff palm oil like some of the budget brands in Europe and elsewhere. Kinda a bad example of shitflation in the states that is only that way thanks to some good ol' fashioned regulations!
@@Vickynger Then enjoy cacao in other ways than chocolate. I like to put honey, choclate nibs and nuts ot nut butter in my mouth. All together, then chew. It's like eating a chocolate candy, but better. Or enjoy hot chocolate.
One key take away of all of this: We should definitely all learn to make and do more stuff by hand. Shitty food? Learn to cook! Shitty Products - buy stuff used, or repair your old goods. Shitty services? Learn to live without them or switch to opensource alternatives! The world of open source and free ressources demands a lot of its users, but it also incredibly rewarding!
Yes, learning to cook seems like a solution to food being shit until you realize that you still have to get all those quality ingredients together somehow… (Saying that as someone who has been diversifying their cooking skills as of late)
Learning to prepare meals with un-processed (or minimally processed) raw ingredient is a great way to eat better for less money. It takes some time and effort of course, but a lot less than most people realize once they have some practice.
I am grateful for the thrift store buys I have bought in the past but since the pandemic, my local thrift stores have only junk. Recently made junk. You can buy vintage lead crystal easily because no one wants it (lead) but the days of vintage quality clothing, lamps, small appliances, even books are long gone unless you are very lucky. Spent over an hour trying to find older books but could find nothing older than 20 years old.....They seem to publish any rubbish now and the shelves are full of it. And 'repairing your old goods' had me almost fall out my chair laughing. For the past 30 years most small appliances are sealed and cannot be repaired and parts for others are not available or exceed the cost of replacing. Got tired of coffee makers dying after 2 years so bought a 100% stainless steel percolator. Coffee tastes so much better and NO micro-plastics.
@@l.5832 Thrifting was obviously unsustainable and not a real solution. I always found it funny that youtubers would talk about it as if we could all thrift without quickly running out of good stuff.
idea: why not introduce a forum/app where everyone can share and warn other people about products that are basically a rip off. Like for example, you buy a bag of chips and you still have an older bag of the same brand and price, so you take a pic comparing both and post it. Or if a product just constantly gets more expensive in a short time frame, document it and post it. We gotta fight corporate greed!
Was out of the workforce during first year of COVID. When I came back, I noticed standards and expectations had decreased dramatically. We couldnt get people to even show up for work. Quality processes that were strong previously just kind of fell apart…
I mean it's no surprise, so many people had the rude awakening of how replaceable they are at work due to mass layoffs. People now know that it's far more profitable to job hop and to not make work a priority anymore
This phenomenon is why I have to buy testing equipment to buy ANY electronics I haven't previously bought. Even stuff I previously bought some batches are of significantly worse quality but I can easily return them as I know what it should be. Like I no longer care what they advertise. I see if others have already tested it and if not. I first check if it's a scam. It looks like not a scam, I buy it alongside testing equipment. If it fails testing, both the electronics and the testing equipment gets returned.
If you start cooking at home, and then furthermore underlying these products/companies entirely by buying bulk ingredients, your wallet takes a breather at the cost of your effort. But you need to put in the love and effort to want to go down this life-path.
it amazes me the people who have convinced themselves they don't have time to cook, to learn ...or the best I live in a shared house so the kitchen is always busy.
As packages and value propositions get smaller, so does my shopping list. I still eat, just the variety of what I buy has declined, companies will feel this sooner rather than later, I'm not the only one.
All my cereals are ones you have to cook. I do everything from scratch and have no prepackaged convenience foods. This fact ended up kicking me in the butt last week when a storm blew in and our power was out about 24 hours. No packaged cereal to munch on....No chips....No cans of pop.......Only uncooked ingredients with no means to cook them (I live in a condo so don't bother telling me to get a woodstove) 😂😂😂
"Now need to be labeled with price per kilogram as well" What backwards country hasn't had this forever? How in the heck are you supposed to compare prices if that information is not available. And it's the best argument against bag of chips vs air stupidity you see talked about. Buy per kilograms, not the size of packaging.
Stores purposely change how they label price by weight or volume to confuse you because most people cant do that math on the fly and end up just buying the brand they always have...
Unit pricing has always been a thing. Walmart in the US prominently displays them on the shelves and online. It's the only thing I look at when comparing prices. They do sometimes do annoying things by changing units between products, but a little algebra and a calculator sorts that out in seconds.
It's been that way in the States since as long ago as I can remember (30+ years). I assumed that was federally mandated by the USDA or something, but apparently it's State-by-State.
On an broader view we are hurrying to dismantle everything keeping things up and running. Cutting off "excess" meaning redundancies (failsafes) and alternative options (increased structural integrity). And the day when the one tiny bit too much is chipped off all comes crashing down there will be no plan b and there is no viable option to get everything back up again.
I think it's because that asteroid is coming "Apophsis". I think that, because alot of companies decisions don't even make sense. My husband works for a company that is dismantling itself, as you say. Things begins to make sense if you say to yourself "oh theres an asteroid that will hit earth in 2029." "Were not telling anyone, so, hit autopilot and feed the populations low grade poisionous food untill then, at that time, we will re-assess when the damage is done."
Great video! Many companies have gone and replaced their traditional emulsifiers (sunflower and egg) with cheaper Soy Lecithin which upsets my digestive system and leads to insomnia. Now I can't eat most chocolate, bread etc. On the up side, I've cut most processed food out of my diet 🙃
The sheety building / construction is REALLY prevalent in Florida. I'm watching the new """"homes""""" being built in 2-3 weeks and being sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars. They're made out of what looks like plaster, quickly/poorly mixed concrete (if that) which has tons of air in it, and plywood that will fall over like a toothpick in a hurricane.
I actually find that the games comparison is so powerful and turns the narrative around because there is one specific area that is THRIVING more than ever before, producing higher quality at better prices products and more content: indie games. I don't believe it is the consumer shopping at temu who is at fault, but the legally enforced maximization of profit that is to blame, especially in a world where rapid innovation has slowed down.
Cheap products have a right to exist. I use Temu and Shein all the time because I know that the shit they try to sell me in shops are the exact same just with a huge markup. That's why I'm really looking for quality I spend more and go to some obscure local shops run by an old person who provides me with the best thing possible that will out live me and my grandchildren. This is also the reason I'm never buying a car that is younger than 10 years. I'm not going to buy overpriced shit that I can buy for much less. It's not about wanting cheap stuff, it's that I want to pay the appropriate price for the things I buy.
Definitely a good one to subscribe to! While I was sent here from how money works, I had already been recommended your youtube sponsorship and job creation videos. Great stuff!
That is why i have reviewed my consumerism to the minimum. Old pc, old games. Used car? Used woofers. Housing? Sharing with friends... food? Cooked, natural... and its being fun, actually...
I only made my recent PC at the end of 2020 because my last computer was failing and starting to show it's age (an HP prebuilt from 2010). And that was after spending most of 2020 finding parts and living without a computer. The graphics card, DVD writer (since replaced with a Blu-Ray writer) and power supply were taken up to my current one.
7:45 “people don’t want smaller homes”. That’s not entirely true. It would be more accurate to say that most places especially in North America make it illegal to build smaller homes.
The “upgrade” from a 2021 to a 2022 GTI was a $4k MSRP increase, plus a horrible downgrade in interior quality, cheap plastic everywhere. Shitflation at its finest!
I picked up a can of Campbell's soup recently and it was in a tidy little can. They have gotten better at minaturizing electronics, contact lenses and cell phones and now they can even miniturize soup!
Agreed! But the solution has to be becoming more self-sufficient. Become less dependent on big companies. Learn DIY skills, learn to fix and make things. Learn to grow some of your own food. Torrent and set up a media server with Jellyfin. Shop around on your bills and supermarket spending. Learn to cook your own food rather than relying on restaurants and delivery services. If you're travelling or staying somewhere regularly look for somewhere you could rent from the owner direct rather than Airbnb. Create rather than consume with your leisure time. Some of the stuff on Temu is crap and poor quality - but some of it is actually brilliant and 10% of the price. There is a lot of middlemen in our economy and we can bypass them. Corporations, banks and governments will become increasingly oppressive, wasteful and ensh*tified. It's up to us to create systems and lifestyles that enable high quality of life, things we make with love, and have resiliency from the grid and collective societal decline.
A better solution is government regulation for quality in products, incentives/disincentives for executives and stockholders to not seek such high profits, increasing/protecting employee wages, and greater legal liability for companies that produce low quality products and services. Self sufficiency isn't sustainable because working together is just way more efficient. Otherwise, society would never have formed.
@@pendlera2959it is pointless to give better solutions when those solutions are practically impossible. It’s defeatist and actively harms any change. That’s like saying instead of splitting rent for an apartment the landlord should charge less. Obviously, but that’s out of our control. Survival is first, everything else is second. We can’t change anything for the better if we are starving, and they know that. That’s why they use the same tactics you’re using, to distract us and split us apart. Don’t let it happen.
Yeah, but no. That's event more of my valuable time outside my already difficult and tiring job stolen from me. I have certain skills, but I refuse to put in more labor when MY TAXES are funding corporations to be incompetent.
Could you fix my coffeemaker that crapped out after 2 years? It is a sealed unit with no way of opening it unless you smash it....Just like all the other drip coffee makers. Let me know where you are able to buy the parts for an appliance that can't be opened. I LOVE making things but cannot find the raw materials. My city of 100,000 people went 2 years with no fabric store. One finally opened selling mainly quilting cotton and garbage fabrics. It would cost me a fortune to sew my own clothes when you add in the zippers, thread, buttons, facings, lings, etc and have a poor quality end product because of garbage fabric.
Except the prices are not staying the same lol they are still definitely going up. Also, check out the vitamin content and things like instant oatmeal packets or cereals. Pop-Tarts took out a bunch of vitamins, as did Quaker instant oat packets and a ton of other foods
Buy bulk quick oats. Use 1/3 cup oats, put on enough water to see it peeking through, then nuke for 45 seconds. Before nuking you can add raisins, chopped walnuts, chocolate chips (real chocolate) etc. Or add a few frozen berries. Why on earth would you buy 'instant' when you can make it in 45 seconds and have it healthier and tastier???
The problem is, these days you can spend more hoping to get a better quality product, and you still don't. You just get ripped off, so you basically have to buy the cheap shit to avoid being scammed unless you've got ages to spend doing research.
Agreed. like unless you fork over a small fortune for a hole in the wall creator for say, clothing then you might get something quality. or second hand older garments. but nowadays even the "high quality" brands or at least, higher than standard department store quality have all gone downhill. its hard to find anything that will last more than a year with clothes
we have to shop at 2 or 3 different stores to save a handful of cents on all the basic shit we constantly have to buy. i don't even think it saves much (if any at all) due to gas prices.
I got my license right before Covid hit and it’s felt like a sad joke since in regards to gas ahah, immediately decided driving was not fun and only a necessity for work, I refuse to waste my money for drinking or fun
Quick note about the tracking of consumer inflation via the "basket" method. The bodies responsible for measure this (various on your country, of course) have been moving the goal posts for a few years now. Rather than the items in the basket remaining static overtime, multiple items have been swapped for cheaper alternatives or outright substitutions. An example of this would be replacing a cut of ribeye with New York strip. Yes, both are technically steaks, but one is generally more expensive than the other. So say the cuts ten years ago cost $12 and $10 respectively, and now they cost $22 and $20 respectively. The tampered basket method would show an increase of only $8, when in reality, the increase was $10.
My mum is allergic to apples and oranges. Apple is one of the cheapest juices. She gets periods of hypoglycaemia, most effectively treated with juice. The juices she's traditionally bought for this have slowly been replaced with stuff that is the same but the ingredients show it's mostly apple juice. It used to be that more than half of the juice in the grocery aisle would've suited her needs as there would be things like mango juice, pineapple juice, grape juice, etc. Now the mango juice has apple, the pineapple juice has apple, the grape juice has apple, and the berry punch has apple. I know it's a very niche situation for this one specifically, but it's something I've heard from other people with other allergies as well, anyone unlucky enough to be allergic to a cheap ingredient has seen their options in the grocery store get chipped away at as companies choose to substitute ingredients that were previously fine for cheaper ingredients that could cause serious reactions.
Mmmmmmoney
I get pimples from palm fat. In Germany, sunflower oil often gets replaced by palm fat. What's next? Crude oil?
That’s a problem most people don’t have, so they accept the shitflation. I love that word now.
My mom has a moderate safflower oil allergy and the oil suddenly was everywhere.
@@kemoni221I like skimpflation more because I don't have to censor it.
The problem is that maintaining the same amount of profit is considered a failure, success is only measured in increased profit.
Infinite growth is impossible, and these are the resulting problems caused by that fact.
Exactly!!! 🎉🎉🎉
This comment is the ultimate answer.
Still surprising the masses aren't doing a Bastille. And I heard the Netflix subs plan with ads was a success. Oh wait...
Printing off trillions of dollars in the last few years definitely has nothing to do with it, right? 😂
Yep. The tragedy of the commons is real.
@@levansegnaro4637You mean the thing every country in the world had to do to offset a global pandemic? I don’t understand how people are seemingly forgetting this happened.
" How money works" sent me here.
Same. Subscribed! I love this kind of video!
me too
Same
Same
Same.
Food labeled with a "New improved recipe!" usually just improves the company bottom line.
you're so mentally ill lol
Yup
There was only one food I had that had an *actual* new recipe, and it turned worse. A brand of cereal I stopped buying.
Lion used to be my favorite candybar in the late '80s i think. Maybe my taste changed but today it's Snickers.
Truth! What happened to that old canard that competition improves products? End stage baby.
The algorithm didn’t bring me here. How Money Works recommended the channel…
Welcome either way
@@Micro-Econ-YTCan i work with you guys? I making logos & banners in my sparetime after my high school sophomore classes.
Same here
Thanks for the offer but for now the channel is not making any money so I can’t I good conscious hire anybody without being able to give them some level of job security
Exactly
Not to mention the pandemic destroyed smaller competitors and big businesses have had increasingly free reign to buy up competition.
Thanks Government!
The "pandemic" didn't do that. The government and its lockdowns did.
@@GunsForEveryoneIsaacAnd I don’t think any administration would change it to be honest. Companies have big influence in the US and Canada, funding politicians’ campaigns so they can’t really implement laws against them or those companies will fund their political rival. It sounds dystopian but that’s capitalism.
@@Acro_YT you right. But I think certain decisions can make it even worse. This is about playing with a bad hand and I think some stupid people up top are gonna go all in
Broadly agree, but I'd like to make a small, but important distinction. The pandemic didn't destroy the small businesses. The *response* to the pandemic did. It wasn't that Covid came along and there was just no saving small businesses, lockdowns and distancing were active choices. Now whether or not you think these choices did enough good to offset the misery created in their wake is another story. These aren't inscrutible 8th order consequences of those policies, however. The rise in wealth inequality and the mass destruction of small businesses was an obvious side effect of those policies. Really, there should have been a discussion about them at the time, but here in the western world, we like to take an emotional stand on things and ignore anything that doesn't support that emotional decision.
I swear I’ve been seeing this in clothing too. Linen blends are priced at the same items that full linen items once were, sweaters that are fully acrylic are charging wool prices, and now everything is full of synthetic fibers
And they try to market this crap material as being "moisture wicking" or some other nonsense that I don't want.
And they all fall apart within a year it’s awful
My mom went to look for fully cotton clothes for my very elderly grandma, and she said the highest they were able to find in America was 50%!
And thrifting only works for so long. We'll eventually run out of good quality older stuff and it'll all be glorified plastic clothes and fast fashion crap.
Hell, I've even calculated that for my specific situation it would be way better value if I just take up sewing as a hobby.
Even after buying a sewing machine and good materials I will be saving money after like 7 linen shirts or one(!) singular wool jacket.
tf's next, weaving our own cloth?
I can clearly track the fact my dollar has halved in the past 10 years. I live very minimally. Buying whats cheapest to survive and skimping on luxuries, not paying anything for subscriptions or entertainment. And I spend twice what I did 10 years ago to survive. I dont need experts or economists to lie to my face and tell me Im actually only paying 18% more than 10 years ago. I have the bank records to say otherwise.
Im scared of the future as the wages can’t keep up !
yeah legit, the idea that it's partially our fault can only be held by the kind of person who is able to get subscriptions and forget about them until they auto renew. many people do not do that, like you I do not use any subscription services or anything like that, my only expenses are rent, food and clothing. and it has gotten so much more expensive.
These days the bank records you get, especially online, also lie. So you actually only know because you've actually been paying attention.
@@yaelz6043 you're gonna have to elaborate on that friend. What do you mean? And have you got evidence for it?
@@russianbear0027 I mean your online banking records will have things left out when compared to a print out you ask for at the bank.
As for proof, do you want a screenshot of my banking app and statement? Cause I'm not giving you one.
"If you've noticed the food you're eating doesn't taste as good as it used to, you aren't going crazy"
THANK YOU!
Yep I've noticed. The last few yrs actually, maybe back to the pandemic. But literally almost everything taste different or is made different. Flipping up charging, and as long as we keep buying they'll keep selling us less and less. But Ido remember Michael Obama made serving portions smaller, so more air. Our govt doesn't care about us. Preservatives and by-products baby
One big reason used is that your tastebuds change as you age.
McDonald's still good tho
Chocolate bars taste like crap now unless you get one made in Europe. American chocolate tastes like wax. And it's not just me. Some random guy heard me say this to a friend and he stopped and joined the conversation. He never heard the first part where I compared it to wax and he said "It tastes like wax!"
My granddad always mourned the loss of flavourful fruit.
Flying cars, teleportation and holographic billboards? Nope, mouldy care homes, hospital waiting lists and overcrowded classrooms.
All by design my friend.
Whenever you heard about "the future" as a kid in media, of course capitalism is never considered because that'd make kids actually look at the greed and abuse they're inundated with every single day. Can't have kids being wise to the SCAM that capitalism actually is. Then they won't grow into good little corporate consumers.
Data harvesting,don't forget data harvesting.
I thought it's a epidemic of India where 18% tax with no facilities it's a pandemic
@@joemama1691 Yep. The economy is so deeply interconnected that it can be difficult for people to conceptualize how and why things are going wrong. This video got the "how" right on the money. The "why" they clearly didn't understand, mentioning greed and technology then moving on to other matters.
Greed is a constant, therefore unlikely to drive this kind of dynamic change. POLICY has been driving it. Since the days of Aristotle tyranny has, time and again, proven to be financially disastrous.
Shout out to Ea-nāṣir and his crappy copper!
That's him getting scammed not inflation
@@mrroger-t6mthat’s what shit-flation is
Kudreeeeeeeah
That man's spirit will never be forgotten
Nanni is the merchant's name you are failing to remember here. Ea-Nasir is the shitty copper dealer who scammed people.
Businesses have been fracturing relationships with their employees (layoffs, not giving proper raises, etc) as well as fracturing relationships with their customers. None of this eroded trust is good for society.
Yeah, Volkswagen for example straight up fired a lot of their staff and wanted to close down one of their factories in Germany as they "couldn't afford it" while paying out 2.5 Billion to shareholders just weeks before. It's ridiculous.
Rich people at the top of companies (executives, board members, and large shareholders) don’t care.
Yeah, but that is a long term consequence and "smart" people don't care about those!
I can’t wait until people get fed up and fight back.
Irrelevant. Their control is total and every possible solution or alternative is unthinkable and evil to 99% of the population.
I've also noticed something that I'd like to describe as fake or forced innovation. There's not really much to improve on a product that's already working as well as it reasonably can, but for the sake of sales and job security, will receive updates despite there not being any need for it. Let's take TH-cam for example, what really changed in the last few years besides advertisement business models? Not much. Yet there are people working in the UI department, releasing useless updates to change the look of TH-cam slightly. They round off the corners a little, change the colour of the progress bar just slightly or move around the buttons so you have to look for them after 20 years of them being in the same place. It's absolutely ridiculous. Now when the narrator says "please like and subscribe", the actual subscribe button underneath the video is highlighted, as if we couldn't find it before. It looks cool, but it's absolutely useless and is only there to give the people at TH-cam headquarters something to do. I can name a million things, like rain detectors on cars or having your phone tell you when your dishwasher is done. It's all useless "innovation".
The current UI update on mobile has made the app significantly worse and extremely buggy. I never seen youtube being so buggy to a point where you literally can't continue to watch videos because of it
As someone who has been on teams responsible for what you're complaining about, I'm not about to say I wasn't in charge of defending job security, but the testing conducted showed that small seemingly insignificant changes dramatically improved KPI's. Like sometimes by up to ~15%. I'm talking just something like a confetti animation in the right place makes a BIG difference on an aggregate user base. It may not change your personal habits, but it does change enough to where you can justify employing quarter million dollars per year developers who's only real output is changing the UI a bit or writing blog posts about things they tried and didn't work.
Scaling things is weird and sometimes backwards to what you would expect.
The term there is the Rot economy. And there is a wonderful piece digesting it here, using the fake innovation of AI as an example: th-cam.com/video/T8ByoAt5gCA/w-d-xo.html
I get a new phone every five years. No reason to get them more often than that. They're good enough. 👍
And they actually took away the ability to change resolution preferences precisely, so now you have to adjust for each video if you’re concerned about lag and buffering while traveling. This has probably led to a few fatal accidents now that I think more about it. Need to go to the advanced tab. Lol
Surprising how we're bringing downfall in the name of profit.
Profit is good as long as i profit.
@@HansTheGeek so human welfare doesn't matter then?
it's the tinyhats in charge not "we". Where do you think they're looting all the stolen money to?
All I see is the failure of capitalism.
@@Pyxis10 Funny enough it looks like properly functioning communism and socialism to. Seems like you let corrupted people in to rule (which always happens) you get the same result. Only plus is capitalism you don't start starving and with zero tech advancements. Yes, all of that is historically verifiable and well documented. There needs to be a better system.
Tldw: Incomes have been so stagnant for so long that companies can no longer compete on quality, and instead compete on price, market cap, and new avenues of exploitation.
It's more like people won't take anymore price hikes for common goods, + inflation. There's a breakign point and I guess they hit it around 2023.
Well geee, thats what happens when u dont give employees a raise that can keep up with costs of living. Yknow, employees that are also your main customer base?
I feel it at my workplace too. One sudden layoff wave right after an already terrible layoff wave. Now, we're short handed, but relief is on the way. In the form of more outsourcing. And once a crapton of money was spent onboarding the new team members that have about 1/5 the living costs and therefore can afford to work for 1/4 the money, we are under no illusions what will happen next.
Until that quality takes a nosedive because said team members just weren't as competent as the people they let go
"should people be expected to have comprehensive knowledge in building standards?'" If you're buying a building, yes - you have to know what the best practices are and inspect your purchase before you buy.
It’s funny how many people are completely clueless to this. I’m so happy I live in a place where I’m *still* allowed to grow my own food in my backyard. Or rather in my parent’s backyard, because there’s no way I’ll ever make enough money to buy a house.
Sorry for the tangent. Remember to plant and save trees 🌳- they are literally keeping you alive and well 24/7
eat trees
Depressing.
That is capitalism in general.
The truth is not entertaining
While the whole situation is depressing, what's even more sad is the lack of accountability companies are facing for hiking up prices with literally made-up reasons.
Man TH-cam really didn't want anyone to see this video. I was wondering when someone would finally make a video on this topic. You deserve way more subs man!
Just signed on. Hope this blows up soon.
Companies aren't limited to inflation or shitflation; they're like "why not both???" I bought a Dell Laptop barely over a year ago for $700 and the damned hard drive completely failed after an update. Or companies that used to have high quality but relatively affordable things now do the opposite with low-quality expensive garbage.
That's ur fault buying a dell
@@Trombonemusic765the whole point is that in the past, buying a dell wasn't a bad decision, but now it is and it also costs more than it used to
The problem is that you bought a Dell
It has nothing to do with the brand. Computer manufacturers are all using the same parts and components suppliers to assemble their final products. Same as it has been for the past 40 years...
They give you full package - inflation + shrinkflation + shitflation.
the worst one for me was milky bar chocolate, I swear to god, that shit was so good when I was a kid, now it just tastes like white advent calendar chocolate, it just hits different, and not in a good way
Well, that's life now; never buy another bar again and the tide will move against their favor.
Exactly, like that cheap, waxy Easter candy…🤢
The worst offender for me has been Snickers. They went from a well balanced flavor delight that melted in your mouth with some peanuts to now being a flavorless, dry yet sticky mush that sticks everywhere with mostly peanuts.
The "reduced fat" was the trojan horse for a lot of this. It started in the late 80s.
interesting
I forsee the criminal sugar tax in scotland being expanded upon into other foods than just sugary drinks and coming to other countries
which will be used to drive a push to put more artifical garbage in our food no doubt.
When you got to cars I instantly thought of Jeep. They used to be cheap cars that wouldn’t bankrupt you when it inevitably broke. Now they charge up to six figures, break if you sneeze on them, and aren’t cheap to take care of.
Just
Empty
Every
Pocket
@ it only got worse when Stellantis realized people would make them their whole personality and didn’t care what it cost or if it was still any good.
Yeah I have a 2001 Cherokee. If I paid a mechanic for every issue I would be screwed but the thing will just handle my awful mechanic work and keep running so I’ve just fixed it myself for 7+ years. Wish it got better mileage but having no car payment is nice
I blame useless MBA people & stock owner focused world view that was started by Jack Welch (GE CEO).
And don't get me started with the "companies cannot invest without stock owners" If companies would divert the money from divident payments into investing into the operation, there would be much less need for bank loans and stock listings. Companies should be allowed and recommended to save up money for a larger investment (a new factory)
high corporate taxes in the states (70%+) used to incentivize internal investment and better benefits for employees. also stock buy backs were illegal before reagan
@@Megasteel32 Damn, are there ANY problems in today's america that wasn't caused by Reagan?
@@Megasteel32 Ugh. It's always either Reagan or Thatcher who's ruined things!
Companies are good. Issue is shareholders and "shareholder" means hedge fund corporation. Every major US brand that fell flat in recent decades was bought by a hedge fund.
Well, that's part of the issue. Monopolization is also huge problem, as it stopped working but consumers don't want, or maybe can't, get better, more expensive items. Myself, I'm always choosing what's less "shitty" quality item, and what's not a total rip-off not worth its price...
Annoying to say the least.
Yes exactly, and companies should be allowed to go bankrupt when they don't have a viable business model.
My Chinese stuff without a middleman has been better than my Chinese stuff with a local middleman so far. Local middlemen often don't listen to their people.
Who would have thought that building a society and with that the whole economy around ppl always trying to gain on each other as much as possible will lead to here ? Maybe, greed is not good after all.
Because modern American consumerism was agreed on globally 3 weeks ago...
@@droopy_eyes hey pal, the video might be three weeks old, but the issue of capitalism ruining things has been discussed for about 300 years now.
@@Jane-oz7pp Socialism is better, but somehow those leaders tend to commit terrorism. Maybe because they used violence to become the leader.
Unfortunately, the alternative to capitalism is mass famine and the most horrific authoritarian regimes in human history.
The solution is not trying to legislate morality, as that leads to authoritarianism, but as a society to embrace the values that lead some of us to give employees generous holiday bonuses, paid family leave, charitable giving, and general kindness.
@@jurassicturtle3666 Norway has nice social services though. Even prisons seem less dystopic than today's "social" media disappearing comments.
Now they raise their prices AND give you less.
if you dont fight and advance your imperative, others will squash it so they can advance their own. whole world is one big conflict of imperatives
Good vid. I would just add the whole issue of planned obsolescence, with companies designing things to break asap so we buy more, which is basically the whole business model of consumerist capitalism
When that happens, i make a public note and switch brands.
@@CTimmerman it's not a bug, though; it's a feature of the current economic system. Any company that would produce stuff which doesn't break down will go out of business. From fashion to light bulbs, the imperative is SELL MORE
@@asafcohen3272 Or innovate. Soon Chinese labor cost inflation might move sock production to Africa, freeing labor for construction that doesn't crush people and persecuting those responsible for shoddy construction. Once we have fully automated luxury space communism, we can watch the noble savages duke it out on holodisplays while feeding on mega buckets of snacks.
@@CTimmermanso you switch to another brand within the same parent company and expect different results?
@@timop6340 I don't think Duracell and Hengwei have the same parent company, but management can be less of a roadblock in some companies. Also, my comment about UBI disappeared, @asafcohen3272
Once upon a time the French started taking heads for this sort of thing
I do wonder how much of this is caused by each level of the supply chain worsening their standards and that it isn't just hard for consumers to find quality products but every level of the supply chain is impacted by the downstream ripple effects of those below them. I know that this is at least partially the case for people buying fabric to make clothing. They had been using the same company for decades and it got worse recently, they talked to the wholesaler for fabrics who said that they themselves noticed that they were having greater losses in storage because the quality was worse than it used to and that there wasn't a single supplier they could recommend buying from them that would definitely do better and that they themselves were searching for new factories to buy from but the factories themselves were saying they were having issues with the quality of the their wool, cotton, linen etc.
Interesting. Do you have a source to dig deeper?
I haven't had a long career, but I have to wonder if material standards were always this low. My last company would occasionally get batches of steel that were to spec. Those were good weels. Normally they'd get garbage with bad properties and bad dimensions. My current company doesn't have that problem, when they get an entire batch of trash it's the exception rather than the rule, but shouldn't errors be one-offs rather than 'whoopsie we fucked up the cut on 500 bars'? Why are the foundries sending out literal crates full of steel that was made wrong?
So at least it's not just the consumer (you) that's suffering. It might be every consumer everywhere, no matter how significant. Awesome!
happy to be here before this channel blows up.
78th sub here saying hi!
Same, it feels like one of the writers of wendover or something
@@seatyourself7082 133th here 🎉
Couple of weeks late to the party here!
At first when asked to subscribe I was like: "Maybe If I like the other videos" but then I looked at his channel and I realized I already watched all of them.
I remember when cheese its were good. They had cheese baked in them and would turn a paper towel slightly greasy. Now they are cardboard. Much of fast food has the same issue too which is why I stopped eating it
And there’s basically no salt on them anymore either
Last few times went to shop for some clothes for me. Total garbage quality products everywhere. All these shops full of stuff giving impression of wealth and choice in reality nothing but garbage selling points.
If you can only get cheap garbage clothes from the store then the only option that remains is to start getting things tailored again. It'll cost more but last way longer making it cheaper in the long run.
Has anyone else noticed that car fuel has also lowered in quality? Look at the exhaust tips of random cars, old and new models, they are now always covered in black soot and when people accelerate there is a slight puff of grey smoke. Normally this would indicate a problem with the car but it’s happening to most cars now. Leading me to believe that the quality of fuel is not the same.
American fuel is universally laughed at all around the world, it wouldn't even be legal to sell in the EU
It's possible you're witnessing people keeping cars on the road longer than they used to. And some are probably not bothering to maintain them, or can't afford to. As far as I know, the federal standards for gasoline formulation haven't changed.
As I understand it, the standards for fuel blends are very tightly regulated and managed, in most developed countries anyway. A couple other things this could be: 1. At least in colder places, fuel gets switched over to 'winter blend' which doesn't burn as cleanly. 2. Water vapor is a bi-product of the combustion process, so if an engine is running at high RPM before the exhaust pipe is hot up you might see a puff of steam mixed in with the exhaust or even liquid water running out of the tailpipe.
DIY, torrent and so on.
These are the solutions you can apply on an individual level.
how am i gonna torrent a can of tuna????
@@VickyngerSteal. If we are given the choices of starve or steal, then it is not a choice at all.
@@VickyngerSwitch to long pork. The uber wealthy are often well fed and thus are better meat.
@@Vickynger You wouldn't download a tuna.
@@Vickynger doesnt work for tuna but for some things it works. there is no universal solution
Cheap polyester everywhere.
More Perfect Union just recently released a video about how the greed of business conglomerates is threatening peoples lives as CVS staff is overworked and stretched thin. Highly recommend it.
I love More Perfect Union.
+
A lot of this comes down to the cost of researching which-purchases-are-good-value being higher than the cost of getting a suboptimal product or service. Every consumer interacts with a ton of different suppliers of goods and services, but every seller only interacts with one pool of customers. This makes it feasible for the seller to research how to to optimze value extraction, while it is infeasible for the consumer to do the same for every category.
I refuse to believe there are a mere 71 subs. (72 now). This is so comprehensive, bringing big terms we're never taught about in school into a way we can consume and, even if it makes no difference immediately, feel more comfortable with, courtesy your help of explaining these otherwise unexplained/inaccesible topics. In a slightly unusual way of a compliment, I hope your channel grows so advertisers fight for exposure to your audience, which I hope will be large.
Well, it is my first video, thanks for the kind words :)
Yeah, too good for a first timer, something fishy going on. Probably a CIA and/or north korean psyop .
Wait what, this was at 71 subs a month ago? Holy fck, look at it now. Still small but...
So in order to counter shitflation as a purchaser we have to bring an insanely long of checklists, rivalling those of the mechanics, just to buy a car.
Have always been. In steel construction here in my nation, we have a very proud tradition of reducing 1mm (or 0.01mm) of base material thickness every few years, with branding names and every standards brokered to justify the change.
It's pretty insane when a supplier I trusted for years suddenly measures differently. Literally drove me insane with paranoia for a few weeks.
It’s time consuming I know. My wife and I both work, but at least we don’t need two jobs each BUT. Cook your food from scratch as much as possible. Control the ingredients in your food.
This is why I never buy new things, all my stuff is 20+ years old. Things are poorly made and aren’t designed to the same standards.
I can’t do anything about food though. If Hershey adds even more wax to their chocolate flavored wax ideally you could switch brands, but they all do that, Cadburry, Nestle, Ghirardelli, it’s all chocolate flavored wax.
DIY. You can buy excellent cacao powder.
@@Coromi1 literally who has the time for that
I smell BS
Ironically, here in the states our chocolate needs to have cocoa butter in it by law. So hersheys actually can't make their stuff palm oil like some of the budget brands in Europe and elsewhere. Kinda a bad example of shitflation in the states that is only that way thanks to some good ol' fashioned regulations!
@@Vickynger Then enjoy cacao in other ways than chocolate. I like to put honey, choclate nibs and nuts ot nut butter in my mouth. All together, then chew. It's like eating a chocolate candy, but better. Or enjoy hot chocolate.
One key take away of all of this: We should definitely all learn to make and do more stuff by hand. Shitty food? Learn to cook! Shitty Products - buy stuff used, or repair your old goods. Shitty services? Learn to live without them or switch to opensource alternatives! The world of open source and free ressources demands a lot of its users, but it also incredibly rewarding!
Yes, learning to cook seems like a solution to food being shit until you realize that you still have to get all those quality ingredients together somehow…
(Saying that as someone who has been diversifying their cooking skills as of late)
Learning to prepare meals with un-processed (or minimally processed) raw ingredient is a great way to eat better for less money. It takes some time and effort of course, but a lot less than most people realize once they have some practice.
I am grateful for the thrift store buys I have bought in the past but since the pandemic, my local thrift stores have only junk. Recently made junk. You can buy vintage lead crystal easily because no one wants it (lead) but the days of vintage quality clothing, lamps, small appliances, even books are long gone unless you are very lucky.
Spent over an hour trying to find older books but could find nothing older than 20 years old.....They seem to publish any rubbish now and the shelves are full of it.
And 'repairing your old goods' had me almost fall out my chair laughing. For the past 30 years most small appliances are sealed and cannot be repaired and parts for others are not available or exceed the cost of replacing. Got tired of coffee makers dying after 2 years so bought a 100% stainless steel percolator. Coffee tastes so much better and NO micro-plastics.
@@l.5832 Thrifting was obviously unsustainable and not a real solution. I always found it funny that youtubers would talk about it as if we could all thrift without quickly running out of good stuff.
Truer word are rarely spoken.
What companies love doing - taking their mid level product, renaming it "deluxe", then creating a lower end version to label as "standard".
Here from “how money works” and I’m happy that you made ur own channel and making your own chosen content 😌
Welcome and thanks for the kind words 😊
idea: why not introduce a forum/app where everyone can share and warn other people about products that are basically a rip off. Like for example, you buy a bag of chips and you still have an older bag of the same brand and price, so you take a pic comparing both and post it. Or if a product just constantly gets more expensive in a short time frame, document it and post it. We gotta fight corporate greed!
I mean there's probably a subreddit or something for that sort of thing already.
@@mach2223 I think its a great idea but I bet the companies will be fast in suing for defamation
You have no real alternatives so it won't matter.
@yaelz6043 thats the mindset the elites want you to have
@@mach2223exactly. Follow /shrinkflation
How money works sent me here, be sure to say thank you to your ex-boss, TRAITORS 😉
Its just how money works
Was out of the workforce during first year of COVID. When I came back, I noticed standards and expectations had decreased dramatically. We couldnt get people to even show up for work. Quality processes that were strong previously just kind of fell apart…
I mean it's no surprise, so many people had the rude awakening of how replaceable they are at work due to mass layoffs. People now know that it's far more profitable to job hop and to not make work a priority anymore
We the CEOs of the United Corporations of America in order to form a more perfect Capitalist Oligarchy
Being able to read nutritional labels is one of the most useful skills I've learned, and even then I'm always suspicious of them 😅
This phenomenon is why I have to buy testing equipment to buy ANY electronics I haven't previously bought. Even stuff I previously bought some batches are of significantly worse quality but I can easily return them as I know what it should be.
Like I no longer care what they advertise. I see if others have already tested it and if not. I first check if it's a scam. It looks like not a scam, I buy it alongside testing equipment. If it fails testing, both the electronics and the testing equipment gets returned.
If you start cooking at home, and then furthermore underlying these products/companies entirely by buying bulk ingredients, your wallet takes a breather at the cost of your effort. But you need to put in the love and effort to want to go down this life-path.
it amazes me the people who have convinced themselves they don't have time to cook, to learn ...or the best I live in a shared house so the kitchen is always busy.
As packages and value propositions get smaller, so does my shopping list. I still eat, just the variety of what I buy has declined, companies will feel this sooner rather than later, I'm not the only one.
All my cereals are ones you have to cook. I do everything from scratch and have no prepackaged convenience foods. This fact ended up kicking me in the butt last week when a storm blew in and our power was out about 24 hours. No packaged cereal to munch on....No chips....No cans of pop.......Only uncooked ingredients with no means to cook them (I live in a condo so don't bother telling me to get a woodstove) 😂😂😂
"How money works" sent me here and I'm now subscribed! Keep up the great work!
"Now need to be labeled with price per kilogram as well" What backwards country hasn't had this forever? How in the heck are you supposed to compare prices if that information is not available. And it's the best argument against bag of chips vs air stupidity you see talked about. Buy per kilograms, not the size of packaging.
lots of em. except the UK.
and we have to do math, bleh. but most don't bother.
US makes it product dependent.
Stores purposely change how they label price by weight or volume to confuse you because most people cant do that math on the fly and end up just buying the brand they always have...
Unit pricing has always been a thing. Walmart in the US prominently displays them on the shelves and online. It's the only thing I look at when comparing prices. They do sometimes do annoying things by changing units between products, but a little algebra and a calculator sorts that out in seconds.
The peanut butter/oil example was illuminating! Thanks!
i am over 30 and my entire life i remember supermarkets havaing to label kg prices.
most of the world doesn't, mr uk.
It's been that way in the States since as long ago as I can remember (30+ years). I assumed that was federally mandated by the USDA or something, but apparently it's State-by-State.
@@mpettengill1981 Oh damn, we Canadians are behind. But liquor stores show the price per ml! Priorities.
certain US states require it but it is not a federal mandate
On an broader view we are hurrying to dismantle everything keeping things up and running. Cutting off "excess" meaning redundancies (failsafes) and alternative options (increased structural integrity). And the day when the one tiny bit too much is chipped off all comes crashing down there will be no plan b and there is no viable option to get everything back up again.
I think it's because that asteroid is coming "Apophsis". I think that, because alot of companies decisions don't even make sense. My husband works for a company that is dismantling itself, as you say. Things begins to make sense if you say to yourself "oh theres an asteroid that will hit earth in 2029." "Were not telling anyone, so, hit autopilot and feed the populations low grade poisionous food untill then, at that time, we will re-assess when the damage is done."
the era of free tendies are over, its time for rrrrrrrrrrevoluuuuuuutioooooon!!!!!!
I love the kinda deep cut reference to "inferior quality copper"--nicely done!
Great video! Many companies have gone and replaced their traditional emulsifiers (sunflower and egg) with cheaper Soy Lecithin which upsets my digestive system and leads to insomnia. Now I can't eat most chocolate, bread etc. On the up side, I've cut most processed food out of my diet 🙃
We’re eating more and more saw dust and they write it off as fibre.
I came here to check out the "traitors", haha... Great video, and I wish all of you the best of luck!
The sheety building / construction is REALLY prevalent in Florida. I'm watching the new """"homes""""" being built in 2-3 weeks and being sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars. They're made out of what looks like plaster, quickly/poorly mixed concrete (if that) which has tons of air in it, and plywood that will fall over like a toothpick in a hurricane.
How is this your first video. Good quality but I cant help but too wonder if there is something strange going on here.
I am an industry plant 😉
Damn the industry plant is self aware
(no but for real this is extremely corporate looking lmao)
I actually find that the games comparison is so powerful and turns the narrative around because there is one specific area that is THRIVING more than ever before, producing higher quality at better prices products and more content: indie games. I don't believe it is the consumer shopping at temu who is at fault, but the legally enforced maximization of profit that is to blame, especially in a world where rapid innovation has slowed down.
how do 'economists' not get that cutting costs does not exist. Whatever cost you cut ,financially, you will end up paying elsewhere.
WHy can't we get smaller sizes AND lower prices, so we can LIVE. It's not even real inflation, its just corporate price gouging
Cheap products have a right to exist. I use Temu and Shein all the time because I know that the shit they try to sell me in shops are the exact same just with a huge markup. That's why I'm really looking for quality I spend more and go to some obscure local shops run by an old person who provides me with the best thing possible that will out live me and my grandchildren. This is also the reason I'm never buying a car that is younger than 10 years. I'm not going to buy overpriced shit that I can buy for much less. It's not about wanting cheap stuff, it's that I want to pay the appropriate price for the things I buy.
Thank you for making this video. I hope your channel blows up. I'm officially your 85th subscriber.
Quality in everything has decreased and everything is getting expensive the further we go, which is sad
I would love a small house, even a 1 or two bed but they don't make them unless it's a condo or house in a box that I need to buy land for.
Endless HOA increases 😢
@richardscathouse ya that's an issue too, also why I don't like condos cause they all have condo associations.
Homestead a cabin in the wilderness until you get evicted. Some areas still have wild horses for free transportation if you're up for it.
Definitely a good one to subscribe to! While I was sent here from how money works, I had already been recommended your youtube sponsorship and job creation videos. Great stuff!
That is why i have reviewed my consumerism to the minimum. Old pc, old games. Used car? Used woofers. Housing? Sharing with friends... food? Cooked, natural... and its being fun, actually...
I only made my recent PC at the end of 2020 because my last computer was failing and starting to show it's age (an HP prebuilt from 2010). And that was after spending most of 2020 finding parts and living without a computer.
The graphics card, DVD writer (since replaced with a Blu-Ray writer) and power supply were taken up to my current one.
Who could have ever thought that global continuously eternal growth is a bad concept for an economy.
7:45 “people don’t want smaller homes”. That’s not entirely true. It would be more accurate to say that most places especially in North America make it illegal to build smaller homes.
I would love a small home. But as it stands I can't afford any! Plus small homes are cute and limit how much junk I could have.
Thanks for making this video, covers some hugely important points, just wish the algorithm could push it to a few million more people.
The “upgrade” from a 2021 to a 2022 GTI was a $4k MSRP increase, plus a horrible downgrade in interior quality, cheap plastic everywhere. Shitflation at its finest!
sports are also ruined. remember the last time a dad was able to afford to have the family at the games and not go bankrupt.
Back in 2009 2010 it was called "quality fade". Shrinkflation was called "creative packaging"
I picked up a can of Campbell's soup recently and it was in a tidy little can. They have gotten better at minaturizing electronics, contact lenses and cell phones and now they can even miniturize soup!
Your former boss sent me here
Something my family doctor mentioned, about the growing Inflation in regards to VW in particular is, that "They stopped making Cars for the People:"
I like how he starts by censoring the word but then by 1:30, he doesn't care anymore and stops censoring. XD
This is for good reason. Basically, if you swear in the first minute of your video, the algorithm hates you.
There's very little an individual can do about it "legally."
74 subs for a video this well made? WHO ARE YOU??
They don't even keep the prices the same. They reduce the products by 30% and increase the price by 20-30%
Agreed! But the solution has to be becoming more self-sufficient. Become less dependent on big companies. Learn DIY skills, learn to fix and make things. Learn to grow some of your own food. Torrent and set up a media server with Jellyfin. Shop around on your bills and supermarket spending. Learn to cook your own food rather than relying on restaurants and delivery services. If you're travelling or staying somewhere regularly look for somewhere you could rent from the owner direct rather than Airbnb. Create rather than consume with your leisure time. Some of the stuff on Temu is crap and poor quality - but some of it is actually brilliant and 10% of the price. There is a lot of middlemen in our economy and we can bypass them.
Corporations, banks and governments will become increasingly oppressive, wasteful and ensh*tified. It's up to us to create systems and lifestyles that enable high quality of life, things we make with love, and have resiliency from the grid and collective societal decline.
A better solution is government regulation for quality in products, incentives/disincentives for executives and stockholders to not seek such high profits, increasing/protecting employee wages, and greater legal liability for companies that produce low quality products and services. Self sufficiency isn't sustainable because working together is just way more efficient. Otherwise, society would never have formed.
@@pendlera2959it is pointless to give better solutions when those solutions are practically impossible. It’s defeatist and actively harms any change. That’s like saying instead of splitting rent for an apartment the landlord should charge less. Obviously, but that’s out of our control. Survival is first, everything else is second. We can’t change anything for the better if we are starving, and they know that. That’s why they use the same tactics you’re using, to distract us and split us apart. Don’t let it happen.
Yeah, but no. That's event more of my valuable time outside my already difficult and tiring job stolen from me. I have certain skills, but I refuse to put in more labor when MY TAXES are funding corporations to be incompetent.
Could you fix my coffeemaker that crapped out after 2 years? It is a sealed unit with no way of opening it unless you smash it....Just like all the other drip coffee makers. Let me know where you are able to buy the parts for an appliance that can't be opened. I LOVE making things but cannot find the raw materials. My city of 100,000 people went 2 years with no fabric store. One finally opened selling mainly quilting cotton and garbage fabrics. It would cost me a fortune to sew my own clothes when you add in the zippers, thread, buttons, facings, lings, etc and have a poor quality end product because of garbage fabric.
Trust is an important factor for economies. It WILL fail if this continues, give it a little more time.
Hey Cadbury, we're talking about you.
Except the prices are not staying the same lol they are still definitely going up. Also, check out the vitamin content and things like instant oatmeal packets or cereals. Pop-Tarts took out a bunch of vitamins, as did Quaker instant oat packets and a ton of other foods
Buy bulk quick oats. Use 1/3 cup oats, put on enough water to see it peeking through, then nuke for 45 seconds. Before nuking you can add raisins, chopped walnuts, chocolate chips (real chocolate) etc. Or add a few frozen berries. Why on earth would you buy 'instant' when you can make it in 45 seconds and have it healthier and tastier???
S**tflation has a family-friendly name. It's also known as skimpflation.
The problem is, these days you can spend more hoping to get a better quality product, and you still don't. You just get ripped off, so you basically have to buy the cheap shit to avoid being scammed unless you've got ages to spend doing research.
Agreed. like unless you fork over a small fortune for a hole in the wall creator for say, clothing then you might get something quality. or second hand older garments. but nowadays even the "high quality" brands or at least, higher than standard department store quality have all gone downhill. its hard to find anything that will last more than a year with clothes
we have to shop at 2 or 3 different stores to save a handful of cents on all the basic shit we constantly have to buy.
i don't even think it saves much (if any at all) due to gas prices.
I got my license right before Covid hit and it’s felt like a sad joke since in regards to gas ahah, immediately decided driving was not fun and only a necessity for work, I refuse to waste my money for drinking or fun
Quick note about the tracking of consumer inflation via the "basket" method. The bodies responsible for measure this (various on your country, of course) have been moving the goal posts for a few years now. Rather than the items in the basket remaining static overtime, multiple items have been swapped for cheaper alternatives or outright substitutions.
An example of this would be replacing a cut of ribeye with New York strip. Yes, both are technically steaks, but one is generally more expensive than the other. So say the cuts ten years ago cost $12 and $10 respectively, and now they cost $22 and $20 respectively. The tampered basket method would show an increase of only $8, when in reality, the increase was $10.
I broke out into laughter when at 9:35 you say quality and show a Tesla
The sad part about all this is that, if we fight it and stop shopping, the world economy will collapse and we'll have nothing to buy at all.
Deregulation of consumer protections is the true culprit here.
'prices of stocks have doubled in the last 5 years but that doesn't mean your money has halfed'
that is in fact exactly what it means.