Why has the world gone to shit?
Why has the world gone to shit?
In the last 5 to 10 years everything seems to suck: product's and services quality plummeted, everything from homes to cars to food became really expensive, technology stopped to help us to be something designed to f@ck with us and our money, nobody seems to be able to hold a job anymore, everyone is broke. Life seems worse in general.
Why? Did COVID made this happen? How?
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A significant part of it is that for a couple decades our economy was based on bullshit. Instead of companies being profitable, especially in tech, their primary goal was to attract venture capital. There was a lot of money floating around with not many easy options to make it grow. Investors were willing to take big risks for the possibility of big future returns. Executives ywe're happy to spend as much as they could and hire as much as they could because the more they spent the higher the company's valuation would be, regardless of current profit.
With the interest rates rising, money is abandoning riskier investments. All these places that had tons of cash flowing in because they might be the next big thing are suddenly trying to be profitable now.
This is compounded by companies wanting constant growth, and flat out refusing to take any of the hit. Investors want companies to show profit now, and goddamn if they're not going to deliver. (Even if it does cost future revenue and stability.) So instead they're trying to push the entire burden onto consumers and are just testing how much they will tolerate.
Are you still buying coke and Pepsi products? Because their prices have doubled in five years. For a lot of cheap things, especially food, demand is fairly inelastic. People gotta eat, and they're not looking to change any habits based on prices.
I, for one have cut way back on coke/Pepsi products. It's not because I can't afford $13/case, because I can. I can afford $20/case without really noticing. I refuse, mostly out of spite. (Unless there's a good sale.) Those companies don't need to improve their 2019 profit margin of 20% (it's now 23%). First, that profit margin excludes the ridiculous salaries of execs. Second, 20% of $13 is already a bigger number than 20% of $6 was. They don't need to both increase their profit percentage WHILE increasing their prices. They're double dipping. And they're passing none of that windfall to consumers or the government or to their employees.
I don't know how to phrase this, and it's just my silly opinion, but I also think the thing that has changed is that our populations have gotten so large with enough chunks of it financially illiterate that it's become impossible to put pressure on corporations.
What I mean is, for every one of YOU there are 3 idiots that will pay the inflated price and put it on the card because they don't know / care how to spend.
It's the same trend everywhere.
Cars, heated seat subscription? Something that should instantly nuke a company, barley does anything because enough idiots with money are buying it.
1000 $ phones with less features? Again, idiots buy it.
You can go down any of the enshitification targets and you'll find a ripe group of consumers allowing the company to hold out and wait until you and I HAVE to buy their product at inflated prices because we're reached a point where our old item has died.
That is the trend that I've noticed. Bad behavior isn't getting punished because enough morons are oblivious.
I rarely buy sodas at all anymore and it's not just due to prices. They changed the recipes of those things and turned them into oily, disgusting messes. I'd bet dollars to donuts they overloaded the sodas with cheap corn syrup and cut out the spices and flavorings they normally would have had to lower overhead.
More enshittification from an economy in collapse.
I tried to look for local alternatives, but no one competes on the cheap end.
I've just turned to a lot more tea. Just got a second infuser.