I've been living with varying levels of tight finances, for my entire adult life. I've watched our country create a ridiculously expensive adult life, driven, in part, by housing costs and rents that small business owners struggle with. It started when I was in High School, in the 80's. Silicon Valley was 1 county over. The privileged could afford to pay astronomical prices for small starter homes, driving modest income households away from the idea of ever owning where they worked. I was angry, then. My grandparents home doubled in price, in a single year.
My great-grandmother's simple, post WWII, 3 bdr 1ba house became impossibly unaffordable, by the time I was in my early 20's. Maybe ,I was the only person who saw this as a huge problem. Homeowners were too busy making obscene profits and overpaid tech-boom workers were only too happy to buy up the little starter homes and transform them into something even more unaffordable for young couples. It was no longer possible, for families like the original owners, to live in them. What sad irony.
I've watched so many businesses close, over the last few years. No one can afford the rent, which continues to rise, in order to cover the rising property taxes (and other expenses). I went into an Indian restaurant, a few weeks ago. I was their only customer. Just 2 people were working. I wonder how long they'll remain open. What will we do, when all these small businesses close? What will their families do?
Last month, I was able to afford (as in my own earned funds) to go away, for the first time in my adult life. 3 nights in a modest priced Airbnb, 2 hours from home. I went to an antique/gift shop and overheard the owner talking to customers that she knew well. The store was barely making it. She was keeping it afloat, with funds from her real-estate sales. The interest rate hike had cost her 3 transactions. She'd worked with her clients, for 14 months, on one purchase. They simply bailed, when the rates went up. She was worried the store wouldn't be open, much longer, as a result of slow sales in both businesses. She'd just returned from spending time with her best friend, who was battling cancer. My heart went out to her. I also knew my modest purchases weren't going to make even a tiny dent in her rent.
We have a society that demands 2 income households, unless one spouse is in a lucrative field. I live in a community with many members who have easily moved along, seemingly untouched, by all of this. Neighborhood page posts are still filled with people looking for various private lessons for children, swimming pool memberships, recommendations for extensive home remodeling, and pet-sitters, for long family vacations. Their spending will help keep small businesses going, to some extent. But, the rest us are cutting back and will have the opposite impact.
Once is coincidence. Twice is suspicious. Three times is enemy action!!!!!!!!
The 1% of the 1% got MUCH wealthier over the past 2.5 years and counting. The wealthiest corporations in the world got MUCH wealthier over the past 2.5 years and counting. The 10 wealthiest people on the planet doubled their wealth during COVID. We've just witnessed the biggest transfer of wealth in the history of the world. THIS IS NOT JUST A LUCKY COINCIDENCE PEOPLE!
One example: Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post and Amazon. The Washington Post went hard for shut downs while Amazon absolutely cleaned up. Everybody answers to somebody though. For Bezos, it's Xi Jinping. Ask yourself: What would happen to Amazon- overnight- if the CCP cut Amazon off from Chinese manufacturers? So whose bidding is the Washington Post really doing?
What if all this was a crime? (IT WAS!!!) Who benefits? I'm telling you, it was the CCP with the candlestick in the library. Hong Kong protests- enormous, unimpeachably peaceful, remember them?- totally gone. Jinping couldn't use tanks- but he could and did use the auspices of "public safety" to clear the streets. Western powers, greatly weakened. Trump- who, whatever his other faults, was the first American politician to stand up to the CCP- gone.
Now, with more lockdowns to come (don't be naive, this playbook worked way too well to not run again) over COVID, over climate change (as long as there is an element of fear, whatever) we are all set to become a feudal state just like that utopia California, where the average home costs $850,000 and 1/3 of the population lives in poverty.
Meanwhile, Xi Jinping- and since he did away with any mechanisms by which he could be replaced, Xi Jinping's successor, Xi Jinping- has achieved his ultimate goal in all this.
It wasn't to hurt us: We aren't his biggest threat. Far from it.
The ultimate goal of all this was the continued oppression of 1.6 billion Chinese people. "Look at all this havoc in the West- see, you guys don't want Democracy and capitalism! See where it gets you?"
A ruler with the consent of the governed doesn't need the most advanced surveillance state in the history of the world- thanks Silicon Valley!!!! Someone with the consent of the governed wouldn't need the Great Firewall of China, they wouldn't need to abuse the interpol system with phony "red notices" so the CCP can collect Chinese political dissenters worldwide. They wouldn't need to silence a famous tennis player who accused a member of the CCP of sexual abuse. They wouldn't need to "disappear" the wealthiest man in the country for letting the tiniest bit of CCP criticism imaginable escape his lips once during an interview. (When Jack Ma surfaced again, he was no longer the wealthiest man in China.)
Whether we like it or not, we are already at war with the CCP. Or rather, the CCP is at war with us and the rest of the world. They are using a strategy called "the three warfares"- it means to win without fighting, it is a method by which the CCP intends to undermine its opponent's willingness and ability to fight. It's information warfare, ideological capture, undermining faith in public and political institutions. Sound familiar? But surely, just a huge coincidence, right guys? Xi Jinping must just be the luckiest man in the whole world.
You can analyze the political parties until you are blue in the face but the real tell is in the financial markets and what they do there. Watching the precious metals market for years tells the story. Suppressing gold made it possible to print the dollar to infinity. Inflation was going to be the byproduct and this has been a long time in the making. Twenty years ago they might have been able to do something but not anymore. What is frightening is that the game is over.
Wow, Jeff Como. Glad he's running a high-end knick knack store for wealthy urban expats, given this comment:
“I still think there’s opportunity galore, and that it’s up to the individual owners,” Jeff says. “This idea that inflation is an existential threat? Get over it. Don't blame it on everybody else. Get your butt in the seat, be a pilot, and run your business. You can land that plane.”
He doesn't sound particularly grounded on the basics of a margins-based economy. He just sounds like a twat.
This article feels like a punch in the gut. it hurts to see that the policies that were supposedly well-intentioned have instead paralyzed our country and our people so badly. Yet the administration not only refuses to take steps to fix it, but refuses to even admit there’s a problem, focusing instead on climate alarmism, white supremacy, and abortion. Not hard to believe this is all part of a bigger plan to change the fundamental nature of our country.
I would love to see a Common Sense deep dive into the real issues around the price of gas - why aren’t we drilling more? Why is Biden begging the Saudi’s instead of allowing it here? Why are we okay with it? It impacts everything and everyone and it’s clearly no accident.
The cost of eggs!! OMG! It’s insane. And like the one person said, prices keep going up with no end in sight. Reminds me of the Covid crap….just one more thing, just one more month….ugh.
There of course is the obvious here. The Democrat party really screwed the pooch on COVID. Dems in power at all levels failed. Trump did majorly screw up at the start by doing the original lockdown. It’s the only thing he did that actually pissed me off. He listened to the experts who turned out to be idiots. Should have followed his gut.
The big learning? When thousands of very smart people say “You can’t just shut down an economy without huge consequences” we need to listen. Yes, people may die from the virus. And guess what? They died no matter what we did. Hundreds of countries doing different things and not a lot of variability in outcome. It’s a fact of life that a new virus will emerge every so often and thin the herd. It’s a hard cold truth.
Remember Reagan’s quip “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’” One couldn’t sum up the experience of COVID any better. I also can’t think of a better reason to support the Libertarian party.
Small businesses and family farms were long the American ideal. Biden’s America consists of corrupt cartels comforting the elite and using the underclass as their first line of defense.
The US has been printing trillions of dollars beginning in 2008. Borrowing money to pay the interest on bonds is something that couldn't go on forever. Doing this was going to cause inflation and now it's here even if Washington won't acknowledge it. Outsourcing all their manufacturing to third world countries damaged many small businesses because they couldn't compete. This has been going on for the last thirty years and they don't admit the mess they caused.
And the “fourth” estate does not perform their job well either. Ruhle was caught spouting off the exact lines of one of dementia’s minions. Don’t trust the main stream media.
Something that the author did not mention is also that if you have a storefront in a deranged shithole like Seattle, Portland, and most large cities in this country you saw your insurance go up multiple times over as a result of the "summer of love" activities of the "enlightened mobs" spreading "justice" and "love". I just saw that my local, immigrant store was bashed in again, a place that literally caries nothing of any real value unless there is a black market for Croatian or Serbian candy, in other words someone smashed their window simply because they can.
Another point that would be useful to fully understand this situation would be a comparative analysis with a place outside of this country. I was recently in Europe and, while they are freaking out about gas, oil, and things they get from Russia, they do not seem to be dealing with issues that businesses and individuals are struggling with here. They are not making their goods any more than we do, yet they are managing to get them to the end user in a much more efficient fashion that we are doing here.
It could be in part because their countries are ran by people in their 40s and 50s, rather than 80s or 90s and because they have actual elections when they can choose between candidates. Here in Seattle unopposed is the name of the game.
I understand and appreciate that these business owners are getting it from both sides but to be frank I'm tired of hearing about how tough it is for them. They are not special; most Americans are feeling how bad things have gotten. And most Americans are not holders of capital like some of the businesses highlighted here.
There's a limit to how much help can be doled out to business owners by the taxpayers and we are well past that limit. If some business owners have to go under then so be it. That is how basic economics works.
Furthermore, for these business owners to assert that they are totally blameless for increasing prices simply beggars belief. Perhaps the author only tracked down completely blameless angels but one only needs to be semi-conscious to see that more than a few establishments like these are increasing prices far above - the likely understated, granted - inflation rate.
Yea, but we are rid of DJT! We will endure any and all hardship to assuage the (in)sensibilities of a bunch of petty, sore losers. And for all those who didn't go along with the political assassination of DJT, you still sat and watched it happen, and did nothing. You watched a cabal of leftists steal an election, and still didn't mobilize to stop it. You let your government, media and major corporations lie shamelessly to you and you didn't bother informing yourself or taking any action against the liars. Complacency bought you this disaster. But Colin Kapernik and Kim Kardashian were so much more interesting, I guess you couldn't be bothered
I've been living with varying levels of tight finances, for my entire adult life. I've watched our country create a ridiculously expensive adult life, driven, in part, by housing costs and rents that small business owners struggle with. It started when I was in High School, in the 80's. Silicon Valley was 1 county over. The privileged could afford to pay astronomical prices for small starter homes, driving modest income households away from the idea of ever owning where they worked. I was angry, then. My grandparents home doubled in price, in a single year.
My great-grandmother's simple, post WWII, 3 bdr 1ba house became impossibly unaffordable, by the time I was in my early 20's. Maybe ,I was the only person who saw this as a huge problem. Homeowners were too busy making obscene profits and overpaid tech-boom workers were only too happy to buy up the little starter homes and transform them into something even more unaffordable for young couples. It was no longer possible, for families like the original owners, to live in them. What sad irony.
I've watched so many businesses close, over the last few years. No one can afford the rent, which continues to rise, in order to cover the rising property taxes (and other expenses). I went into an Indian restaurant, a few weeks ago. I was their only customer. Just 2 people were working. I wonder how long they'll remain open. What will we do, when all these small businesses close? What will their families do?
Last month, I was able to afford (as in my own earned funds) to go away, for the first time in my adult life. 3 nights in a modest priced Airbnb, 2 hours from home. I went to an antique/gift shop and overheard the owner talking to customers that she knew well. The store was barely making it. She was keeping it afloat, with funds from her real-estate sales. The interest rate hike had cost her 3 transactions. She'd worked with her clients, for 14 months, on one purchase. They simply bailed, when the rates went up. She was worried the store wouldn't be open, much longer, as a result of slow sales in both businesses. She'd just returned from spending time with her best friend, who was battling cancer. My heart went out to her. I also knew my modest purchases weren't going to make even a tiny dent in her rent.
We have a society that demands 2 income households, unless one spouse is in a lucrative field. I live in a community with many members who have easily moved along, seemingly untouched, by all of this. Neighborhood page posts are still filled with people looking for various private lessons for children, swimming pool memberships, recommendations for extensive home remodeling, and pet-sitters, for long family vacations. Their spending will help keep small businesses going, to some extent. But, the rest us are cutting back and will have the opposite impact.
We need each other.
Once is coincidence. Twice is suspicious. Three times is enemy action!!!!!!!!
The 1% of the 1% got MUCH wealthier over the past 2.5 years and counting. The wealthiest corporations in the world got MUCH wealthier over the past 2.5 years and counting. The 10 wealthiest people on the planet doubled their wealth during COVID. We've just witnessed the biggest transfer of wealth in the history of the world. THIS IS NOT JUST A LUCKY COINCIDENCE PEOPLE!
One example: Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post and Amazon. The Washington Post went hard for shut downs while Amazon absolutely cleaned up. Everybody answers to somebody though. For Bezos, it's Xi Jinping. Ask yourself: What would happen to Amazon- overnight- if the CCP cut Amazon off from Chinese manufacturers? So whose bidding is the Washington Post really doing?
What if all this was a crime? (IT WAS!!!) Who benefits? I'm telling you, it was the CCP with the candlestick in the library. Hong Kong protests- enormous, unimpeachably peaceful, remember them?- totally gone. Jinping couldn't use tanks- but he could and did use the auspices of "public safety" to clear the streets. Western powers, greatly weakened. Trump- who, whatever his other faults, was the first American politician to stand up to the CCP- gone.
Now, with more lockdowns to come (don't be naive, this playbook worked way too well to not run again) over COVID, over climate change (as long as there is an element of fear, whatever) we are all set to become a feudal state just like that utopia California, where the average home costs $850,000 and 1/3 of the population lives in poverty.
Meanwhile, Xi Jinping- and since he did away with any mechanisms by which he could be replaced, Xi Jinping's successor, Xi Jinping- has achieved his ultimate goal in all this.
It wasn't to hurt us: We aren't his biggest threat. Far from it.
The ultimate goal of all this was the continued oppression of 1.6 billion Chinese people. "Look at all this havoc in the West- see, you guys don't want Democracy and capitalism! See where it gets you?"
A ruler with the consent of the governed doesn't need the most advanced surveillance state in the history of the world- thanks Silicon Valley!!!! Someone with the consent of the governed wouldn't need the Great Firewall of China, they wouldn't need to abuse the interpol system with phony "red notices" so the CCP can collect Chinese political dissenters worldwide. They wouldn't need to silence a famous tennis player who accused a member of the CCP of sexual abuse. They wouldn't need to "disappear" the wealthiest man in the country for letting the tiniest bit of CCP criticism imaginable escape his lips once during an interview. (When Jack Ma surfaced again, he was no longer the wealthiest man in China.)
Whether we like it or not, we are already at war with the CCP. Or rather, the CCP is at war with us and the rest of the world. They are using a strategy called "the three warfares"- it means to win without fighting, it is a method by which the CCP intends to undermine its opponent's willingness and ability to fight. It's information warfare, ideological capture, undermining faith in public and political institutions. Sound familiar? But surely, just a huge coincidence, right guys? Xi Jinping must just be the luckiest man in the whole world.
You can analyze the political parties until you are blue in the face but the real tell is in the financial markets and what they do there. Watching the precious metals market for years tells the story. Suppressing gold made it possible to print the dollar to infinity. Inflation was going to be the byproduct and this has been a long time in the making. Twenty years ago they might have been able to do something but not anymore. What is frightening is that the game is over.
Modern Monetary Policy works great until it doesn't, and then it's too late.
Interesting how it is insulting when they say to little and it is out of touch when they present the bigger issue.
Wow, Jeff Como. Glad he's running a high-end knick knack store for wealthy urban expats, given this comment:
“I still think there’s opportunity galore, and that it’s up to the individual owners,” Jeff says. “This idea that inflation is an existential threat? Get over it. Don't blame it on everybody else. Get your butt in the seat, be a pilot, and run your business. You can land that plane.”
He doesn't sound particularly grounded on the basics of a margins-based economy. He just sounds like a twat.
This article feels like a punch in the gut. it hurts to see that the policies that were supposedly well-intentioned have instead paralyzed our country and our people so badly. Yet the administration not only refuses to take steps to fix it, but refuses to even admit there’s a problem, focusing instead on climate alarmism, white supremacy, and abortion. Not hard to believe this is all part of a bigger plan to change the fundamental nature of our country.
I would love to see a Common Sense deep dive into the real issues around the price of gas - why aren’t we drilling more? Why is Biden begging the Saudi’s instead of allowing it here? Why are we okay with it? It impacts everything and everyone and it’s clearly no accident.
The cost of eggs!! OMG! It’s insane. And like the one person said, prices keep going up with no end in sight. Reminds me of the Covid crap….just one more thing, just one more month….ugh.
There of course is the obvious here. The Democrat party really screwed the pooch on COVID. Dems in power at all levels failed. Trump did majorly screw up at the start by doing the original lockdown. It’s the only thing he did that actually pissed me off. He listened to the experts who turned out to be idiots. Should have followed his gut.
The big learning? When thousands of very smart people say “You can’t just shut down an economy without huge consequences” we need to listen. Yes, people may die from the virus. And guess what? They died no matter what we did. Hundreds of countries doing different things and not a lot of variability in outcome. It’s a fact of life that a new virus will emerge every so often and thin the herd. It’s a hard cold truth.
Remember Reagan’s quip “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’” One couldn’t sum up the experience of COVID any better. I also can’t think of a better reason to support the Libertarian party.
Did you see all the lies Brix told, power hungry politicians/healthcare workers. A pox on them all.
“A pox on them all.” 🤣
If only this were from incompetence, but it’s not.
Small businesses and family farms were long the American ideal. Biden’s America consists of corrupt cartels comforting the elite and using the underclass as their first line of defense.
Thank you for reporting on the real world in which we live.
101 ECON says this is the result of trillions upon trillions of government spending.
The US has been printing trillions of dollars beginning in 2008. Borrowing money to pay the interest on bonds is something that couldn't go on forever. Doing this was going to cause inflation and now it's here even if Washington won't acknowledge it. Outsourcing all their manufacturing to third world countries damaged many small businesses because they couldn't compete. This has been going on for the last thirty years and they don't admit the mess they caused.
And the “fourth” estate does not perform their job well either. Ruhle was caught spouting off the exact lines of one of dementia’s minions. Don’t trust the main stream media.
Something that the author did not mention is also that if you have a storefront in a deranged shithole like Seattle, Portland, and most large cities in this country you saw your insurance go up multiple times over as a result of the "summer of love" activities of the "enlightened mobs" spreading "justice" and "love". I just saw that my local, immigrant store was bashed in again, a place that literally caries nothing of any real value unless there is a black market for Croatian or Serbian candy, in other words someone smashed their window simply because they can.
Another point that would be useful to fully understand this situation would be a comparative analysis with a place outside of this country. I was recently in Europe and, while they are freaking out about gas, oil, and things they get from Russia, they do not seem to be dealing with issues that businesses and individuals are struggling with here. They are not making their goods any more than we do, yet they are managing to get them to the end user in a much more efficient fashion that we are doing here.
It could be in part because their countries are ran by people in their 40s and 50s, rather than 80s or 90s and because they have actual elections when they can choose between candidates. Here in Seattle unopposed is the name of the game.
I understand and appreciate that these business owners are getting it from both sides but to be frank I'm tired of hearing about how tough it is for them. They are not special; most Americans are feeling how bad things have gotten. And most Americans are not holders of capital like some of the businesses highlighted here.
There's a limit to how much help can be doled out to business owners by the taxpayers and we are well past that limit. If some business owners have to go under then so be it. That is how basic economics works.
Furthermore, for these business owners to assert that they are totally blameless for increasing prices simply beggars belief. Perhaps the author only tracked down completely blameless angels but one only needs to be semi-conscious to see that more than a few establishments like these are increasing prices far above - the likely understated, granted - inflation rate.
Yea, but we are rid of DJT! We will endure any and all hardship to assuage the (in)sensibilities of a bunch of petty, sore losers. And for all those who didn't go along with the political assassination of DJT, you still sat and watched it happen, and did nothing. You watched a cabal of leftists steal an election, and still didn't mobilize to stop it. You let your government, media and major corporations lie shamelessly to you and you didn't bother informing yourself or taking any action against the liars. Complacency bought you this disaster. But Colin Kapernik and Kim Kardashian were so much more interesting, I guess you couldn't be bothered