Companies like Exxon Mobil, Shell, and Kraft Heinz enjoyed bumper profits as consumers struggled with historic inflation.

In April, Société Générale economist Albert Edwards released a scathing note saying he hadn’t seen anything like the current levels of corporate greed in his four decades working in finance. He said companies were using the war in Ukraine as an excuse to hike prices in search of profits.

“The end of Greedflation must surely come. Otherwise, we may be looking at the end of capitalism,” Edwards wrote. “This is a big issue for policymakers that simply cannot be ignored any longer.”

  • Zorque@kbin.social
    154·
    1 year ago

    The thing is, it’s an inevitability of capitalism. When you have a system who’s measurement of success is how much material wealth you can accumulate, people are going to do their best to accumulate as much wealth as possible. Which means putting basic needs on the back burner if they don’t make you enough money.

    • Cylusthevirus@kbin.social
      22·
      1 year ago

      I think people wanting stuff is pretty much endemic to people, whatever economic system happens to be in place.

      • Instigate@aussie.zone
        7·
        1 year ago

        True, but capitalism incentivises wanting beyond what you can possibly use. Billionaires could never genuinely spend all of their money on themselves. It’s human to want what you don’t have; it’s inhuman to want to amass more than you could use by taking it from the mouths of others.