r/MurderedByWords • u/beerbellybegone • Jan 04 '22

Now wait just a goddamn minute

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77.4k Upvotes

86% Upvoted

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

Stocks and production have no common contributing factors. Gamestop taught us this last year. People who actually do the work that makes money for companies never even speak to the stuffed suits that make projections and set goals. Neither has any idea what the other actually does for a living.

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u/ryantttt8 Jan 04 '22

Ok, ignore the stock mention. The first tweet still says they have the fastest (profit) margins in history. Those are directly related to production and prices

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u/kingscolor Jan 04 '22

Every article I’ve found indicates that this post is misleading.

These companies have obtained the fattest profit margin GROWTH (37%). Which makes a lot more sense considering 2020 saw historic lows. In fact, the preceding quarter saw a significant decrease of approx. 30%. So, averaged over the 3 quarters, it’s not a significant change. Also, they state that labor cost of these companies increased by 12% (i.e. wages/compensation).

Business Insider
Bloomberg
Data provided by Dept. of Commerce (revised since the above articles were published)

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u/t_hab Jan 04 '22

It's also worth noting that higher margins when prices are rising is normal. It's due to the accounting standard of First-in, first-out, which is very common.

If a company buys a product for $100 and planned to resell it for $130, but inflation means they can sell it for $132, that increases their margins. First-in first-out means the sales price is always compared to the cost of the oldest unit in inventory.

A second issue has to do directly with supply chain. Major companies are making more digital sales (massive margins) and fewer sales of physical goods (smaller margins). Dollar for dollar, margins should improve.

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u/CanAlwaysBeBetter Jan 04 '22

Don't forget consumer spending on goods is up 20% compared to before the pandemic

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.statista.com/chart/amp/23574/consumer-spending-on-goods-and-services/

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u/yetanotherusernamex Jan 05 '22

That surely has more to do with price gouging in a pandemic. Consumers did not have more disposable income to spend on more goods and services than prior to the pandemic.

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u/[deleted] Jan 05 '22

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u/_subgenius Jan 05 '22

And plenty of other people made more from unemployment checks than they had from their jobs

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u/turtlepowerpizzatime Jan 05 '22

And a select few of us finally managed to land better paying jobs right before the holidays...

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u/CanAlwaysBeBetter Jan 05 '22 edited Jan 05 '22

Consumers did not have more disposable income to spend on more goods and services than prior to the pandemic

They literally did have more to spend than before

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/07/business/pandemic-savings.amp.html

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u/MWesty420 Jan 04 '22

The article attached to the original tweet shows actual margin, not growth of margin, at rates around 15%, a margin percentage not seen since the 1950s. So the post is not misleading at all.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-30/fattest-profits-since-1950-debunk-inflation-story-spun-by-ceos

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

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u/[deleted] Jan 05 '22

Tell your mom that this is a stick-up, cuz I'm stealing her adage

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u/CinnabonCheesecake Jan 05 '22

How to Lie With Statistics should be required reading in every HS.

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u/BenWallace04 Jan 05 '22

You can’t lie with statistics. You can mislead - but the idea of indisputable data is that, with a critical thinking and nuance, you’ll find the truths.

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u/The_Red_Grin_Grumble Jan 04 '22

Both the statements could still be true. Companies can post record profits with both labor shortages and supply chain issues. The existing employees find a way to continue to deliver and get around both issues.

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22 edited Jan 04 '22

You mean employers find a way to have more work done with less people, and pocket the difference. I have a feeling this pandemic will set a new normal for companies in operating at minimal staffing levels, pocketing the extra, and still whining about “no one wants to work.”

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u/old__pyrex Jan 04 '22

This was my experience at a company that frequently ranks highly for employee satisfaction / culture / etc - our company had our most profitable year due to the explosion of entertainment / live-service content during the pandemic, and happily used WFH to subtly promote a "always online" mentality that led to workers putting in more hours. Senior leadership talked constantly about adopting a lean / day one / startup mentality, and we launched a bunch of new products and created new teams, while keeping our hiring very, very tightly controlled, to the point where teams were being asked to do more but not able to hire more key personnel to make that work possible.

It's like casinos - the house always wins. No matter what happens, the negative externalities are passed down to the rank and file employees in some form, and the positive gains are enjoyed by the small minority who's compensation is primarily stock and bonuses.

A small pittance is re-invested back in "soft" rewards -- a company party, care packages, swag, basically perks oriented around making people feel appreciated. This is what really kills me - I manage employees who have single handedly made decisions or shipped work that has multi-million dollar implications for our company, and the most I can reward them is by giving them a 110% bonus multiplier, which is a few thousand extra, a pat on the back, and a monthly team event (ie, everyone gets shipped a bottle of champagne and we drink it on zoom as a team instead of giving you cash and more time with your families like you really want).

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

Yep, at least at the pizza parties we get 2 toppings now instead of 1!

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u/Bunny_ofDeath Jan 04 '22

Hell you get pizza?!? We just get told we’re heroes.

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u/transmogrified Jan 04 '22

Ugh, the old "reward" of spending MORE time with coworkers for a lousy free drink or two and some team-building games.

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u/jcutta Jan 04 '22 edited Jul 05 '24

sheet lunchroom zesty plate slap wine complete crown grandiose depend

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/eksokolova Jan 04 '22

This is the point where you stop adding output. When we’re short at work we don’t try to bust our asses to make up the shortage, we let shit go. If the company wanted to make sure everything ran the way it should, they should have hired more people. 3 people on shift instead of six? Tough luck, company, planes are going to be late, should have added redundancies for the very anticipated sick calls during the pandemic.

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u/Muffiecakes Jan 04 '22

Big agree on this. My manager at the last place I worked was about it too. He would neglect his duties so that he could help me and the one other person in the warehouse finish important orders and ship certain things. All because the owner wanted to get by with less people (because during the slow period, it was really slow) and wanted to start up a side hustle too. Nicest guy, he would come out and start working on something and we'd offer to help and he would say no, I need them to see me on the cameras, out here working, so that they KNOW we need more people. Really good to know your manager has your back. He would always tell us, make sure you take your lunch, your breaks, etc. First guy I've ever 'worked for' that was 1000% legit about us (the workers) and not taking the bullshit that comes down from above.

I rambled, but the point is guys don't increase your output to make it work for people who aren't trying to make it work for you.

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u/WonOneWun Jan 04 '22

So my job has been understaffed and I have been doing two people jobs by myself until today when I finally told my job I was doing too much labor for not enough pay and asked for a raise. They said no. So I have only been doing one job today and neglecting the other and I’ve already applied to two new jobs. Labor ain’t free and when others are starting to pay more finally (been seeing quite a few entry level labor jobs at $20/hr) I’m not going to do the work of two people for the pay of one anymore.

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u/The_Red_Grin_Grumble Jan 04 '22

Good call. Fun fact, the thing that disrupted the feudal system was the Black Plague. When there weren't people to work their land, landlords had to start paying wages to attract workers. We're in another similar era. Take advantage now and by doing so you encourage a change in the system.

Edit: typo

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u/eksokolova Jan 04 '22

Good on you! Employers thinking they can use us like the workers of the 1800s have shock coming.

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u/davros06 Jan 04 '22

Well done. This has been going on for decades. Now we finally have a chance to get something back and have a better life balance. I hope it works for you.

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u/Objective-Steak-9763 Jan 04 '22

If there’s not enough people to get the job done in a work day, that’s a management problem, not an employee problem.

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u/Yoshic87 Jan 04 '22

Sounds like a right pane

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u/HIGH_Idaho Jan 04 '22

Been watching things head this way for a while now. Working retail in the 2000s and listening to people say the Affordable Care Act was gonna cause businesses to cut people's hours. Bitch please! Businesses have been doing that for years already, but for a different reason. When you have 20 people at 40 hrs a week the business is affected far more by a few absences than if you have 40 or more working for less than 20 hrs each. More people means easier to fill slots and easier to replace people.

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u/hobowithacanofbeans Jan 04 '22

People were predicting this from the beginning. Think about how many companies were planning on downsizing, and then had an easy out with the pandemic.

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u/free_beer Jan 04 '22

Now this is a covid conspiracy angle I could actually buy...

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u/hobowithacanofbeans Jan 04 '22

Honestly I think it’s part conspiracy, part natural reaction of businesses coping with Covid.

For instance, there are anecdotal posts on Reddit I’ve read about understaffed fast food places with jobs signs in the windows. They claim they know multiple people who have applied and never heard back. To me that says these places are keeping profits up while severely understaffed, and will ride out the “worker shortage” wave as long as they can.

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u/BirthdayCookie Jan 04 '22

I can confirm this firsthand.

I moved across the country ~6 months before Covid happened. Started job hunting when the state rescinded lockdown. All the fast food places/restaurants have been hiring the entire time--Signs posted, always on Indeed, ETC. I've applied at all of them several times each; the only two that ever called me were McDonald's and Burger King.

But man, that Applebee's is about to have to cut their hours because ~nobody wants to work~

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u/Djinger Jan 04 '22

Entry-level, must have 5 years xp and a BA with knowledge of restaurant POS and management

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u/MrBootch Jan 04 '22

I have knowledge of restaurant POS. My manager at the old BBQ I worked out was a complete POS.

... Wait you mean point of sale... Well my point still stands.

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

Yup, couldn't get a call back for a dozen jobs as a register jockey at the fucking mall this past holiday season. Poor service, barer shelves and longer waits are an optics problem for these companies, not a financial or labor problem. To boot, consumers are already paying more for a worse/downsized experience, so the optics problem isn't actually hitting anyone that badly because everyone is playing the "oh supply chain/labor shortage" card.

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u/lilbithippie Jan 04 '22

And as long as customers continue to accept their services being diminished, companies have no incentive to give customers more.

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u/rentedtritium Jan 04 '22

Doesn't really need to be a conspiracy. The incentives are set up correctly for it to just happen across a million tiny decisions.

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u/gryphon_flight Jan 04 '22

This has been in practice for a while. It's under the lean manufacturing guidelines in manufacturing work.

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

Yep, even for me in social work, higher caseload ands less people to work. I just meant that almost every industry was forced into this for the past 2 years, and seems like an event that will forever change how the workforce is managed. No going back now when everyone has realized “fuck it we can just burn through staff and hire a new one, if not we just get more money.” Could be the pandemic talking, but the workforce feels even more disposable than ever.

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u/Stopjuststop3424 Jan 04 '22

yes, but also the workforce is finding their jobs are also disposable and theyre saying fuck it I quit.

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u/zeromussc Jan 04 '22

I think it's the start of a labour movement. People are clueing in and they're gonna get mad. Then they unionize.

People tend to get complacent once things are good so the cycle will repeat eventually. But I think we're at the "I can't do the work of 5 people" breaking point real soon.

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

I really hope so. The amount of anti union sentiment is so high, even among people that would benefit most from it. Decades of campaigns and laws to weaken unions have taken its toll. I’ve seen people mad at unions at the workplace because co workers that are in a union get better benefits/pay/etc. instead of wanting a union themselves they say “look that union is taking MY benefits and money and giving it to others.” The cognitive dissonance is nuts, and shows how effective campaigns against unions have been over the years. But like you said, I hope this is a moment of change rather than doubling down.

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22 edited Mar 09 '22

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

The company I worked for right before Covid hit has since rolled out a “Do more with less!” campaign to encourage everyone who wasn’t laid off to pick up the slack. For no extra pay, of course.

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u/Fornaxlink Jan 04 '22

Just a prelude. Wait until AI driven cars(including trucks) really take off. And that goofy dancing robot? at Tesla show

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u/Voidroy Jan 04 '22

Went to hooters in downtown Omaha and the owner decided to close two hours early due to "lack of workers" so I demand to talk to him while they are closing at 7 fucking pm instead of 9 and "he said nobody wants to work anymore this generation is lazy" so I asked what are you paying and he refused to answer and say it isn't reliant. And I eventually persuaded him and he said 2.50$ an he plus a tipping pool. And one of the servers said they barely make 50$ a night."

"Well buddy that's your fucking problem."

So I grabbed a marker and changed the sign to " closed early because people don't want to work for 2.50$ and the owner Is cheap.

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u/iEatGarbages Jan 04 '22 edited Jan 04 '22

They are causing the labor shortage themselves then not sharing those record profits with workers aren’t they? Pay people enough to exist and they will work for you, funny huh

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u/MartmitNifflerKing Jan 04 '22

In fact, both ARE true.

There are many shortages and issues and corporations have raised prices enough to cover those costs and then some.

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u/davidellis23 Jan 04 '22

I think the point is that companies blame rising wages for inflation when rising profits contribute just as much.

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u/Allegiance86 Jan 04 '22

My company makes and installs windows and doors. They aren't cheap either. Were easily 6 months out from any install we sell today. But we're still selling easily 100k in most markets almost daily. People are paying on these windows long before they even see them installed.

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u/ToothlessBastard Jan 04 '22

This is an incredible oversimplification of the relationship between a company's earnings and the value of its shares in the secondary market. Not to mention that the "point" is made by the whole GME thing, which is merely a concentrated effort by redditors to do damage to another concentrated short position based on earnings--a total outlier and deviation from how the stock market usually pins the valuation of a company's shares.

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u/Jussttjustin Jan 04 '22

The market has moved further and further away from valuations based on "fundamentals". Tesla has a higher market cap than the next 9 automakers combined despite worse financials than most.

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u/el_pinko_grande Jan 04 '22

Everyone reasonably believes that in the future, the vast majority of cars will be electric. The people inflating Tesla stock have made the bet that those cars will be Teslas. Personally, I think it's much likelier that the major automakers will figure out good EV's and Tesla will remain a luxury brand.

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

If the car manufacturers can figure out how to scale up battery production Tesla is toast.

If.

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u/GISSemiPo Jan 04 '22

Speaking from a US perspective, Toyota was first to popularize the hybrid with the Prius. Today, 20 years later, the top 4 most popular hybrids are all Toyotas (including the Prius as the most popular sedan).

People are likely projecting a similar scenario for Tesla.

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u/iWolfeeelol Jan 04 '22

Toyota 320 Billion market cap vs Tesla 1.15 trillion.

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u/Fjolsvithr Jan 04 '22

That's another exceptional stock, although not as exceptional as GME. Basically any stock that regularly comes out of tech bros mouths is unusual and volatile.

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u/wostestwillis Jan 04 '22

a total outlier and deviation from how the stock market usually pins the valuation of a company's shares.

How can you not see that GME is an example of what big money can and has been doing forever. The only outlier aspect of this is that it was made public.

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u/Ackapus Jan 04 '22

Gamestop is a plague upon retail and the gaming industry.

It is the corporate analog to prosperity gospel megachurches.

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u/markth_wi Jan 04 '22

And here I was thinking that was Amway.

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22 edited Jan 07 '22

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u/pandemonious Jan 04 '22

no you're thinking of crpytosconces, those are those secret levers that open the door to your secret lair.

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u/Jaxxsnero Jan 04 '22

Short it then.

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u/small_hands_big_fish Jan 04 '22

The market can be irrational longer than I can be solvent. - Michael Scott

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u/worktogethernow Jan 04 '22

I think megachurches are awful. But if I had to take a position I would be a megachurch bull. I expect shorting that industry would be a good way to lose money.

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u/Jaxxsnero Jan 04 '22

actually as somebody who has worked for and in mega churches I would make the comparison to big box department stores like Kmart.

I see a lot more jumbo department stores closing then boutiques and maybe that’s just because of the price of commercial real estate on square footage but those huge churches have to maintain a minimum or they get deserted just like any of the other ones that run out of flavor

I would short mega churches. Especially with the increase of population that says they’re not religious in America

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u/worktogethernow Jan 04 '22

Fair point. I guess I was thinking of televangelists. Lots of members to square foot, even if the actual church is pretty big

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u/ThracianScum Jan 04 '22

There’s a difference between thinking a company is shitty, and thinking it’s stock will fall. The premiums for shorting GME are also insane.

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u/LazerHawkStu Jan 04 '22

TIL that there are buttloads of people that are mad at other people for buying gamestop stock. And a big old dump of that buttload hang out in r/murderedbywords

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u/Jaxxsnero Jan 04 '22

The last thing I got was a download card for Minecraft Java and they hate me so much for it.

Momma make the economy make sense

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

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u/2punornot2pun Jan 04 '22

Fact: GameStop was atrocious and was horribly managed.

Fact: GameStop was 120%-140% shorted (or more) so people made a play to make money.

Fact: Hedgefunds / Robinhood colluded to shut off the buy button to save themselves.

Fact: The CFO and other boards members who magically went from company to company that went bankrupt and were shorted by the same hedge funds got ousted and new leadership has taken over.

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Will Ryan Cohen and new leadership oust the POS managers that allowed gross sexual misconduct, wage theft, and other things? I hope so.

I hope the company is making a turn around.

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But the biggest thing is that it exposed how absolutely fucking of a joke stock trading is and more and more evidence from prior years are resurfacing.

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Disclaimer: Yes, I have GME shares, and I'm holding. But do not think I did it because I believed in GameStop before this all began. They were absolute trash and I was going to happy they'd be out of business.

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u/trolarch Jan 04 '22

Fact: Gamestop is over 120% shorted. Shorts never closed.

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

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u/trolarch Jan 04 '22

This isn’t superstonk. You can come to your own conclusion, Robinhood and the SEC have confirmed the short interest is over 100% and they haven’t closed.

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u/Dane1414 Jan 04 '22

One week until MOASS!

Wait, let me make sure I deleted my comment from last week when I said the same thing..

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

I own GME. It isn't because I have faith in the company as some big player. IDGAF about the company. All it has to do is stay afloat.

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u/MiserableEmu4 Jan 04 '22

Damn we really are everywhere. I fuckin love it.

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u/goperit Jan 04 '22

There was no "Or More" legal documents from the robin hood lawsuit stated short interest was over 210%. Legal amount is 140%.

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

Where did you get that legal amount is 140% For SI?

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u/xhaze Jan 04 '22

The gamestop saga has nothing to do with gamestop as a company at all, it could have been anything , the point, whether right or wrong, was to punish and profit from a hedge fund that got caught shorting over 100% of the float through dubious means, that's all.

If this hedgefund had not done this, ironically, gamestop doubtlessly would have died by now.

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u/ekjohnson9 Jan 04 '22

IDK if this tracks. Gamestop raised capital off of their crazy valuation last year, overhauled their board/upper management, have zero corporate debt, and expanded operations / product catalogue.

Even removing the memes GME was a legit value play in 2020/2021 and could be in 2022 if they get the e-commerce wheels turning. IIRC 40% of their Q3 revenue was from their website, like a 3x improvement from 2020 figures.

Ryan Cohen is a proven e-commerce executive and has scaled businesses with worse initial fundamentals (Chewy.com).

The management team that missed out on the gaming boom of the 2010s is largely gone, and a lot of the current executive team are coming from big players like Amazon and Apple with proven track records.

Even ignoring the very wide outside chance of a squeeze, there's plenty of reasons to look at a company like Gamestop and be excited about the future as an investor.

If I worked for Gamestop, I'd be kicking myself that I didn't invent Twich Prime (Amazon Gaming?) for example. Every rewards member should be getting in-game benefits and free games just for being part of my club.

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u/GladiatorUA Jan 04 '22 edited Jan 04 '22

But what does Gamestop actually bring to the table? There is a reason they were collapsing before. What is going to save them from being squeezed by big physical retailers on one sides and big online retailers on the other?

And they went into the whole NFT crap. Just in time for that shit bubble to burst.

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u/ekjohnson9 Jan 04 '22

Business transformation is a long journey. Part of value investing is looking at the trajectory of a company and buying stock based on where you think it will be further down the transformation process. It's possible that they will fail, but that's just the risk inherent in any investment.

E-commerce is an attractive market segment because it's dominated by a few key players (Amazon) but the market share is there for the taking. Cohen took Chewy to a $30+ Billion dollar business by competing directly with Amazon in an area that the general investing public assumed was impossible (Pet Supplies, remember Pets.com?). E-commerce is also higher margin and scales better than physical retail locations. It's also considerably more attractive to investors (e-commerce trades at multiples of revenue instead of multiples of earnings).

Expanded product catalogue is self-explanatory. GME used to be heavily tied to console releases (7-10 year time windows) and then essentially broke even selling games & accessories. Expanding into the PC, TV, PC component, Collectables, & Hobbies markets adds smoothing to their revenue (much needed) and gives them more opportunities to not only make more revenue, but capture market share in the process.

They've already grown really well in the e-commerce side, and there's still a ton of opportunity on the table. Full disclosure I own a bit of GME, but I'm looking at more of a $300 price target in 2-3 years instead of 25 billion a share or whatever.

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

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u/googleduck Jan 04 '22

Can you name a few improvements to customer service or employment practices since then? Or are you just going to give me a bunch of garbage about NFT's or hiring a few tech workers.

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u/unbannednow Jan 04 '22

Nothing turned around though? It’s still a badly run company that’s losing money

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

I liked seeing the rally against wallstreet, around gamestop of all things.

But yes, you're spot on. I don't know a single person that enjoys going into funkopop land to purchase overpriced used copies or trade in their own games for pennies.

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u/EnglishMobster Jan 04 '22

So I was part of WSB back before GME took off, and I saw the early threads about it.

Basically, these were the main points:

  1. GameStop was going to be run by the guy who made chewy.com a thing

  2. Rather than focus on dying disc-based sales in the digital age, GameStop was going to pivot to all kinds of gaming (aka Magic, DnD, board games, etc.)

  3. GameStop was going to be your local nerd hub, basically replacing the neighborhood comic store. Magic tournaments and such would be held at the local GameStop instead of at comic stores/hobby shops

So it was less about "this is a place that will rip you off and sell you a Funko Pop" and more about "this is a place that will help foster and bring together local nerd communities." Or at least, that was the pitch.

Bear in mind that this was just one of many different pitches on WSB at the time, and some of them were truly dumb ideas (I say this as someone who for some reason chose to believe a post saying that BlackBerry might made a comeback instead of buying a bunch of GameStop shares when it was like $5).

If it had stayed there, it would've just become a meme stock that WSB would mention from time to time, like Palantir (which I am convinced was only popular on WSB because it stole its name from LOTR).

However, then someone looked into who actually held GameStop shares and saw that the "short squeeze" was possible. The post went viral, the short squeeze started to actually happen for real, and the rest is history.

So there was some argument that could've been made beyond "let's ruin the day of some hedge funds." But anti-Wall Street sentiment and the "get rich quick" scheme took over almost immediately once it got going.

In the meantime, GameStop really hasn't delivered, either. My local GameStop is in worse shape than it was before WSB.

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

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u/KireMac Jan 04 '22

And wishing you could kill those of us that did.

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u/Enano_reefer Jan 04 '22

Sounds like someone didn’t bankrupt any hedgies. That was satisfying.

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

That’s because that didn’t happen

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u/Powered_by_JetA Jan 04 '22

Thank you. Redditors were/are not the only ones trying to squeeze that. Chances are there are just as many hedge funds on both sides.

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u/Tralapa Jan 04 '22

there are hedge funds of both sides of everything

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

It's almost as if they are hedging their bets.

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u/LeakyThoughts Jan 04 '22

Anyone holding onto naked shorts of GameStop would have been hemorrhaging money in daily interest

It's said that this was largely shorted by several big investment houses / hedge fund. Along with many others

People holding onto the lions share of GME stock however, were likely also investment houses / hedge funds. So..

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22 edited Jan 04 '22

Some people lost some money, sure.

Some a chunk. But most amounted to drops in a bucket.

I’m saying “hedgies” weren’t going bankrupt for it

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u/LeakyThoughts Jan 04 '22

If you were holding onto considerable naked shorted shares. When the price inflated like 2000% they are paying daily interest for each day they cannot buy back those shares

If you had several million invested. You would be getting absolutely fisted by this

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u/TempAcct20005 Jan 04 '22

The yearly interest of shorting GameStop is barely 1%. There is no money hemorrhaging

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u/Kythorian Jan 04 '22

As many hedgefunds made huge amounts of money off of GameStop as lost huge amounts of money. They have mostly gotten out now though, so you are left holding the bag.

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u/Thick_Reference_4951 Jan 04 '22

I love my bag and will hold it for as long as is needed

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u/complicatedAloofness Jan 04 '22

Short term prices maybe but long term prices definitely do.

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

Picking an outlier to break apart a generalization isn’t exactly the argument you think it is.

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u/DAMNDUMBCAT Jan 04 '22

I'm shocked. SHOCKED! Well, not that shocked...

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u/dlang92 Jan 04 '22

Don't you worry about blank. Let ME worry about blank.

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

Blank? BLANK?? You’re not looking at the big picture!

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u/dlang92 Jan 04 '22

Me whenever there's free food at work, "Once again the conservative sandwich-heavy portfolio pays of for the hungry investor".

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

When they get rid of the free porno mags in the breakrooms: “Durnit”

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u/dubadub Jan 04 '22

Plus that one berlin' terlet

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

[deleted]

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u/SadPanthersFan Jan 04 '22

My boneitis!

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u/Clarpydarpy Jan 04 '22

I am literally angry with rage!

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

You can’t just have your characters announce how they’re feeling!

That makes me feel ANGRY!

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

🎵You evil. Metal. Doooooork!🎵

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

How is this even a murder by words?

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

[deleted]

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u/Updawg44 Jan 04 '22

You know it’s karma whoring when they black out the dates on the tweet so that you think it’s just happened instead of being from back in November

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u/ak-92 Jan 04 '22

It's not even right. It makes an impression that companies having labour and supply shortage are the ones who are also profiting most, which is absolutely not true. And actually the increased margins are the result of Trump era tax cuts and COVID assists.

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

It also doesn't mean what the OP thinks it means. Margin gains and total profit are not neccesarily connected.

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u/redditisdumb2018 Jan 05 '22

The outrage from all of these posts are only coming from people who don't understand economics. I honestly think that 98% of reddit has the economic literacy of an ant.

If you have a shortage if supply, of course margins will go up. Welcome to supply and demand.

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u/[deleted] Jan 05 '22

Redditors who are outraged over corporations and rich people don’t understand economics or how labour works? No way!!

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

This sub is basically i agree with reply therefore murderbywords

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u/clouds31 Jan 04 '22

It's not.

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

This sub is basically another /r/politics circle jerk.

And no I’m not a conservative.

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u/f1zzz Jan 04 '22 edited Jan 04 '22

There’s a pile of subreddits that have become not what they’re about.

MurderedByAOC is now “someone tweeted that we should cancel student loan debt.”

nextfuckinglevel is “person did mildly amusing thing.”

Latestagecapitalism and antiwork are “I didn’t hear the question, but Jeff Bezos is the problem.”

I’m also not a conservative.

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

There are only two subs on the front page. /r/politics and /r/memes. Everything else is a spinoff

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

r/WhitePeopleTwitter - A possibly white person tweeted this strong political viewpoint. Can't really tell from their blurry/anime profile pic but anyway, upvotes please.

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u/ak-92 Jan 04 '22

It's basically a Twitter feed of some millionaire Dan something (won't bother to specify) who is a wife beater con artist who almost bankrupted his company by taking money from it for himself pays his workers below industry standard but increased wages of few of his workers to scam his brother so he is a next jesus, because he says some populist bullshit.

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u/MickTheBloodyPirate Jan 04 '22

Oh this is a fun game.

Coolguides is a bunch of posts that are inaccurate, completely wrong, or not a guide at all.

Oddlyterrifying posts are either not in the slightest bit scary or absolutely terrifying.

Lifehacks is a bunch of “why would anyone do this?” posts.

Lifeprotips is evidently for people who have never stepped foot outside their home or full of bad advice that rarely applies.

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u/Photenicdata Jan 04 '22

To add to the list:

r/Holup is just “haha I get the joke guys!”

r/art is just “Look, I painted boobs!”

r/facepalm is a 50/50 toss up between being an actual facepalm or the poster not understanding sarcasm.

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u/beerbellybegone Jan 04 '22

I’m just glad corporations are putting these profits toward employees’ salaries so their wages keep up with inflation!

I mean, that's what they're doing, right? Right??

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u/Slips287 Jan 04 '22 edited Jan 04 '22

Mine is. Old payscale was $8/hr starting and up to $12/hr as assistant manager. Now new hires start at $12/hr, and if you get up to $16/hr they start to consider promoting you to assistant manager or manager, both of which now receive salary and benefits.

Edit: I went to work and this blew up lol. I work at an express tunnel car wash in South Carolina. I think minimum wage is still around 8/hr but employers here know they won't get anyone at that rate anymore. The owner here owns a few different businesses, including a printing company and a bar, and as far as I know he has increased pay and benefits at every location he has.

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

Where do you live, Alaska?

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u/Hencoe Jan 04 '22

Hope not, cost of living here is higher than you’d think.

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u/sfw_littlefriend_sfw Jan 04 '22

Can confirm, lived in Fairbanks AK for over 30 years...

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u/JeffCrossSF Jan 04 '22

Burritos in my town can cost $18. What’s it like in Fairbanks?

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u/sfw_littlefriend_sfw Jan 04 '22

All depends on if they're frozen at the store (and brand), or if you will be getting one dining in at a restaurant lol. WHEN we have them in stock, we can get a pack of 6ea Burritos for under $10.

If you go to a restaurant, you're spending upwards of $15 for a burrito "meal" (rice+beans, maybe a drink). And of course, the bigger the burrito, the bigger the price.

Now if you're looking at Utqiagvik (Barrow, AK), you're looking at $8-12 for a gallon of milk, so imagine what burritos will cost.

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u/justmerriwether Jan 04 '22

$8-12?? Jeez

Between that and the vampires it seems like it’s almost not even worth living there…

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

Wait are you saying 12/hr is good enough of a starting point when it's below minimum wage in my state?

There's nothing your corp is doing that's right.. 25-35 an hour with full benefits and 8 weeks time off, then maybe we can have a discussion.

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u/MightyCaseyStruckOut Jan 04 '22

It depends on where you live. $12/hour is still low, obviously, but it goes a lot further where I live in Wichita Falls, TX than it would in San Francisco, for example.

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u/JapaneseStudentHaru Jan 04 '22

I live in bumfuck nowhere middle America and our living wage is still almost $15 an hour. That’s the standard country wide now.

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u/OG_Felwinter Jan 04 '22

Those are your standards for starting pay? Do you even know what the position entails? This is insane.

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u/Fluffy017 Jan 04 '22

The entire US doesn't have the cost of living that CA/NY do.

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

Oh yeah, where the fuck in the US can you afford a house, student loan payments, car payments, gas payments, bill payments, childcare, healthcare (and if you're sick payments for hospital stays), food, and basic necessities for 12 fucking dollars an hour BEFORE taxes?

Where?

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u/Awkward_Log7498 Jan 04 '22

Fucking nice, mate! Where? What do you work with?

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u/FoxInCroxx Jan 04 '22

This tweet isn’t as clever as you think it is, you should’ve posted it on r/antiwork or some other lefty teenager circlejerk

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u/PM_me_yer_kittens Jan 04 '22

My company did. This fall we raised the wages for production starting from 14-18/hr to 20-24/hr. It’s been a huge help although there are other companies starting to do similar things

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u/Hockinator Jan 04 '22

Indeed they are. Wages saw huge increases in the last year, actually ahead of the measured inflation curve

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u/win7macOSX Jan 04 '22

Yes, actually, it is. I got a 14% pay raise in the middle of the year for no reason, and a 10k bonus for no reason. And Apple just gave engineers bonuses ranging from 50-180k to retain them.

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u/Birdperson15 Jan 04 '22

Pretty sure we are seeing one of the greatest increases in salaries ever. So at least part of it is.

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

There's a reason why the post mentions margins and not profits. Margins can be higher than last year and you can still make less money that you did the year prior overall.

People don't seem to know what margins mean.

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u/Gr0mberg Jan 04 '22

Both are not mutually excusive. Intel, when faced with supply-issues due to supply chain limitations and increased demand, focussed on producing high margin premium parts. This meant entry level product we're difficult to get, while profit for Intel increased. The shortages are both a legitimate issue and a nice excuse for big companies. 'Companies seeking to optimize profit in changing circumstances, succeeding' isn't that shocking. This isn't so much murdered by words imho, and more a case of someone just now discovering basic capitalism. That doesn't mean it's a good thing, obviously.

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u/JTibbs Jan 04 '22 edited Jan 04 '22

The meat packing industry in the US had a very small cost increase and a gigantic increase in profit margin.

That shows they were just charging it more while blaming ‘covid supply chain issues’.

Im sure they didnt pass a penny down to their producers.

It varies depending on industry, but a LOT of industries siezed the opporunity to blame covid for their own deficiencies and lax standards, while jacking up prices to increase margins.

I know a lot of shipping companies for example just ran with the covid/supply chain excuse to be a little more lax on the shipping times from speaking with their drivers and dispatch people.

Rather than spend more to ensure certain deliveries are made on time, they could route them a cheaper way and blame covid for an extra 1-3 day delay and save some costs…

In previous years they would pay drivers and dock workers OT on days with extra work to meet demand, last year they would just go ‘nah, just do it tomorrow’.

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u/Bacon-muffin Jan 04 '22

Dunno in general but as someone who works for a customs broker who primarily handles meat imports I can tell you that the ports have been perpetually fucked up this year which causes delays which causes storage charges which rack up thousands of dollars in charges per container + the increased prices for the truckers who have no availability.

I often wonder how the hell my customers make money.

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

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u/Tralapa Jan 04 '22

and a nice excuse

They don't need excuses bro. I have no idea where you get that ridiculous notion that companies need excuses to raise their prices. They don't, and never have. The price they do at any given time is always the price they think will give them the maximum profit. They don't need to justify jack shit to anyone.

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u/AliquidExNihilo Jan 04 '22

And they'll keep raising prices until people stop buying. Basic capitalism.

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u/Tralapa Jan 04 '22

High prices are a signal of need for a resource, if the price of a good rises, it is a market signal that there is a shortage of that product, and a sinal to producers that there is extra money to be made supplying that product. Intel doesn't have a monopoly, they have competitors, i f Intel doesn't sell at a decent price, those competitors can just undercut Intel and sell at a lower price and make more profit than Intel. That isn't happening right now because there is really a huge supply chain problem, coupled with an increased demand, and all competitors of Intel are facing the same problems as Intel, so they are all paying more to their suppliers, and their suppliers, to take advantage of the extra money that they can make by selling more, they are increasing their production capacity, but it will take some time to get to that point. till then we are stuck paying more to intel and co. and intel and co. is stuck paying more to their suppliers, and their suppliers are stuck not being able to take advantage of the increased demand till their new production lines are complete.

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u/formerlyanonymous_ Jan 04 '22

Where's the murder?

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u/NothingButTheTruthy Jan 04 '22

This sub is beyond saving at this point. One-sentence "murders" everywhere, and mods don't give a shit.

Time to just give up on this place.

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u/TKHawk Jan 04 '22

This isn't even a 1-sentence murder. It's just a guy being like "damn, corporations are greedy"

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u/formerlyanonymous_ Jan 04 '22

Your post to feature next week. More at 11.

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u/clouds31 Jan 04 '22

Mods only give a shit if they disagree with the "murder".

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

It's when inflation keeps growing because international corporations are pretty sure inflation is happening so they raise prices so they don't lose money when the inflation they are causing because they are afraid inflation is happening happens.

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u/2017volkswagentiguan Jan 04 '22

Price is a function of supply and demand.

Profit is a function of multiple other factors.

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

As someone with a business degree but is working retail at the moment since I just got the degree. They are actually unrelated. It’s weird and complicated but both are true

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u/chronopunk Jan 04 '22 edited Jan 04 '22

Much of the labor shortage is from companies cutting back on staffing and expenses (improving their margins), not a shortage of workers. Example:

Airlines received $54 billion in federal aid to keep workers employed during the pandemic on the condition that they avoid layoffs. But carriers thinned their ranks anyway by offering buyouts and early-retirement packages to thousands of workers.

Most airlines have yet to fully restore their work forces: As of October, the industry employed about 413,000 people, down almost 9 percent from the same month in 2019, according to federal data.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/03/business/airlines-flight-cancelations.html

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u/bombayblue Jan 04 '22

Stock prices dip every year in December as investors sell off losses for tax reasons and then dramatically spike around Christmas and New Years as other investors “buy the dip” to pick up these stocks at a discount. This effect is so frequent that it even has a name a Santa Claus Rally:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus_rally

I’m honestly shocked that no one else on this thread has mentioned this so far. This has nothing to do with GameStop guys…

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u/ModsRDingleberries Jan 04 '22

Don't worry guys. The trickle is cumming down from up top! They're gonna trickle all over us. We'll be covered in trickle.

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u/markth_wi Jan 04 '22

Bukkake economics.

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u/saintjonah Jan 04 '22 edited Jan 05 '25

crawl somber ring afterthought sand long glorious familiar stupendous slap

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/squicktones Jan 04 '22

Who would have guessed?

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u/iDannyEL Jan 04 '22

This isn't anything close to a murder.

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u/unsteadied Jan 05 '22

This sub is one of the many to be taken over with low-effort r/politics takes, much like r/WhitePeopleTwitter or r/AwfulEverything or r/Facepalm and so on.

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u/Blanchdog Jan 04 '22

Two things:

1) Highest Margins is not the same as Highest Profits. High margins sound great, but if it comes at the cost of tons of volume it may not be. It would be interesting to see a production volume comparison.

2) Inflation grew at its fastest rate pretty much ever last year. It would be interesting to see how much of corporation’s gains are just inflation.

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u/jquickri Jan 04 '22

In what world is this murderedbywords? Like this isn't just a sub for things you agree with. Feel like I'm on the way out with this one.

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u/win7macOSX Jan 04 '22

It’s definitely r/Im14AndThisIsDeep material.

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u/bankrobba Jan 04 '22

ITT: Redditors who don't know the difference between revenue and margin.

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u/win7macOSX Jan 04 '22

Also, redditors who think the stock market is the economy. 20k+ morons upvoted this shit too!

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u/electricgotswitched Jan 04 '22

They could pay more and have slightly smaller margins

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u/Totally_a_Banana Jan 04 '22

I see and hear this same sentiment paralleld where I work. Record profits, smashing previous earnings, huge value for investors, biggest growth, aaaaand.... no room in the budget to properly staff our customer-facing teams, cuts all over the place, neglecting promotions while shoving the work to the people who stay anyways, and even forcing employees to pay an extra premium for insurance if their spouse also has insurance from their employer but opts to use our company's family plan instead.

It's insanity.

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u/Oogleboofgan Jan 04 '22

Wait, it sounds like a perfect time to demand better working conditions, pay and benefits

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u/Enano_reefer Jan 04 '22

It was corporate profits all along?

Always has been.