Bernie Sanders confuses me

[Insidb]

kitler53 said:

Insidb said:

Under the current maximize profit margins at costs paradigm, it could, but it doesn't have to. If a company chooses to not acknowledge that more people with more money should lead to more revenue (if they are good at what they do), then their increased wage costs should be more than offset by the increased customer revenue. Your concern is valid, however, because shareholders force companies ot maximize valuations and maintain "optimal" profit margins. This is usually realized by slashing overhead AKA laying workers off and demanding that remaining workers "pick up the slack." Notice how quick corporations are to demonize unions, the very same people that fought for the now long gone forty hour work week? This is why.

what you decribed is inflation and it means that nobody's life actually got better.  doubling my wage doesn't mean shit if i also double my costs.

Under the "profiteering" paradigm, yes, companies leverage the increased wages against the earners to raise prices to maintain margins. The inherent fallacy is that more people consuming more goods maintains the margins, because P=R-C still works just fine. Keep in mind that the annual, standard, living wage increase in the US is 3%, while the reported annual inflation rate is 3.21% (last year was reported "0.7%"), but the real inflation rate is around 10%. Ergo, wages are being and have been continually suppressed to maintain profit margins, not to prevent inflation. In essence, the threat of inflation has been a tool long-wielded to ensure that "worker productivity" is maximized.