December 2011 - Mercedes Benz

Its simple capitalism.   More precisely to say though...its GREED. And because this is happening in the US in 2025, and to be fair it is reciprocated here in Canada, and this phenomenon has been in effect since the 1980s, its CORPORATE GREED since both of our countries have made ourselves servants and lackeys  to these corporations. We abide by everything they tell us through their shytty adverts. We have stopped patronizing mom and pop shops etc...   And when Trump was tooting tariffs as his election campaign, the democrats warned of such dangers about corporate greed...about how tariffs work (the citizen pays the tariff and not the country as its a fancy word for tax and how corporations will augment the un-tariffed product to be closer in sales price as the tariffed product...  But, Harris and her party were all doom sayers.   And she has a weird laugh on top of that.  And the talk went on to be about how they are eating the dogs and they are eating the cats...     Basic education is terrible in the US.  And its by design as a certain political party in the US (and Canada to be fair but the tactic is less successful as Canadians are more community oriented)  defunds education every time they go into power. Its also by design that in today's world, the two most northern countries in North America choose to glorify ignorance and vilify knowledge and education. To a lesser extent up here in Canada for whatever reason.  Canadians in general continue to value enlightenment.     Critical thinking skills be shrinking in the US of A.   Liittle catchy slogans is what grabs attention though.  They are eating the dogs and eating the cats.  We did have something similar in Canada though.  Trudeau has nice hair was our cat/dog moment 10 or so years ago.  But Trudeau won.  And if it wasnt for Doge, Musk, tariffs, Epstein, 51st state rethoric, 36 counts of felonies, we too, be having our Maple Maga movement.  But...education is a priority up here in Canada still...      

AGREE!!! Dating myself, but back in the late 70's/early 80's I worked at the cinema and was the snack bar shift lead. One of the basic tests to get a position and make more money was those that worked the snack bar had to be able to do basic math in their head. I would daily have to test them by placing random order of products and they had to add it up in their head and then based on the cash received give back proper change but a requirement here in Washington state was to count it back so as a simple example. You order up $13.50 in food, give them a $20 dollar bill and they would have to count it back as food, $13.50, two quarters make it $14, a one makes it $15 and a five makes it $20 so they know they got the correct change. Today, go to any store and most struggle to look at the screen and figure out the proper change to give back and then they just hand you a pile of coin and paper without counting it back to ensure it is proper.  Basic math in America is terrible.

Yep. We're already not in a great place because of the tariffs, but companies are absolutely taking advantage of that and charging so much more than the tariff itself and then claiming it's raised because of tariffs. It's as if they don't think people understand how to do math.  Then again, in all fairness, most people don't know how to do simple math. So, there is that.

Agree with 15% on items from Ireland, it is crazy the price gouging that is going on. Retail grocery stores are even worse I see for items like Kerrygold butter.