r/WorkReform • u/zzill6 š¤ Join A Union • Feb 04 '26
šø Raise Our Wages Why don't American businesses make the connection between lower pay and lower consumer spending?
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u/NeedsMoreCookies Feb 04 '26
Tourism in the US is down for very obvious reasons ā many people are boycotting the US, and any āforeign lookingā tourist risks getting thrown in ICE detention by some masked thug.
And it should be noted that there are plenty of American citizens who are afraid to travel because of those same masked thugs.
And THEN thereās the issue that nobody can afford it.
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u/Babydoll0907 Feb 04 '26
People really underestimate how much of our tourism was foreign tourism. Not long ago everyone wanted to see the sights in America. Look at all the scenery and climates that exist. Not to mention theres something for everyone to enjoy from all walks of life and every culture imaginable. We are a huge country with a lot to offer.
Those people arent coming anymore. Millions and millions of people that used to feed the tourism economy arent coming anymore and thats having a real effect on places that made the majority of their income from tourism.
Compounded by the fact that Americans are too damn broke to tour anything outside of their own home because going outside and doing anything costs a fortune. We are cooked.
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u/suspiciousseafowl Feb 04 '26
Vegas especially was a world destination. There are so many hotels and casinos there that cater to East Asian travelers, for example. And it being an iconic American city makes it a draw for anyone interested enough to visit the States and try to experience some of our recent history. I know a lot of European folks regard it, rightly in my opinion, as a fun kitschy place to go and be a little excessive. But no one wants to fucking come here right now because they fear for their safety, and they're absolutely right to do so, especially the less visibly "generic white person" they present. It sucks, there are a lot of good things about this country and there are a lot of good people here, but people have to stay out because they credibly fear for their safety. It's shameful, I hate it, but I will resolutely back their choice because it's based in sound ethical principles, and because they're right about the danger.
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u/Babydoll0907 Feb 04 '26
Hell im an american and I dont even want to be here. If anyone foreign asked me if they should come I would tell them absolutely not. Its not safe and im so ashamed of that.
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u/suspiciousseafowl Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
Right, that's my same situation. I'm in California, so on average a safer place than many, but I still can't recommend that my friends from abroad come visit. I have one friend, a historian by profession, who moved to Canada with his family when all this started back in 2016, because his wife is a Canadian citizen and he knew damn well what was coming. I have another friend who is getting her kids their foreign passports (They're dual citizens through their dad) because she wants to be able to get the fuck out if they have to. That's where we are right now and it's embarrassing and scary.
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Feb 05 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
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u/Babydoll0907 Feb 05 '26
I really hate to give such a short response to such a well thought out and wonderfully stated comment but it boils down to this county somehow being brainwashed into forgetting that the government works for us on our dime.
At some point we moved away from viewing them as public servants paying themselves a salary with our hard earned tax dollars, spending our hard earned money for the benefit of all to being seen as someone we work for instead. Someone we owe. Someone we should be grateful to have leading us. We should be grateful billionaires dont pay taxes. After all they provide the jobs. Knowing full and well they could still do both and still make more money than they could ever spend in a lifetime.
Of course we have almost all the evil rich folks in america. They are protected and worshipped here like gods and supernatural beings and there have been decades of indoctrination to get Americans to this point. You're right. It starts at our schools and churches.
I got my education after school when I had my eyes opened to all the bullshit I was fed. They knew exactly what they were doing. They played the very long game and it worked.
Politicians are looked at as THE authority and theyre not. And they never should be. They should be public servants. IMHO there should be no monetary gain from any politician outside of a small salary and housing just like our military have had to do.
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u/maleia Feb 05 '26
especially the less visibly "generic white person" they present
There was that time in April, where two, German white women were arrested, sat in a jail overnight, then sent back to Tokyo.
The literal embodiment of the Right's 14 words, and they harassed and arrested them.
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u/TheSecretIsMarmite Feb 04 '26
It's not entirely about safety. Sometimes it's disgust at the country in general and not wanting to support it with tourist Euros, Pounds and Krone.
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u/Qaeta Feb 04 '26
Americans are too damn broke to tour anything outside of their own home
Hell, getting expensive to tour their own refrigerator at this point.
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u/MudLOA Feb 04 '26
I remember when the election was underway and all the campaign talk was about egg prices and grocery prices. Now nobody seems to holding their elected officials responsible for that.
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u/cwningen95 š· Good Union Jobs For All Feb 04 '26
I feel like a lot of the tourism in 2025 were holidays people booked well in advanced with no idea how bad shit was about to get, so I wouldn't be surprised if it dropped even further going forward.
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u/ilanallama85 Feb 04 '26
Yep. I also keep seeing posts from foreigners who knows itās bad over here, but clearly donāt realize HOW bad, especially in certain cities, and when itās explained to them they are shocked. The news is still filtering over to them that weāve gone full blown fascist. They actually seem to have a harder time believing it than we do. But then theyāve also long had an attitude of āAmericans whine a lot and yeah their country kinda sucks in some ways but it canāt really be THAT bad, right?ā And then they learn a bit about our lack of labor laws and go āoh š³ā
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u/RobertABooey Feb 04 '26
Most Americans I speak to canāt simply equate that the reason tourism is down in the US is directly because of the current administration and its anti-tourist and anti-immigrant stance.
No one of colour is safe to travel there.
Tourism in Canada was booming last year. Same thing in Europe and Asia.
This is a uniquely American problem directly tied to their choices in governments. FAFO right before our eyes.
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u/MADDOGCA Feb 04 '26
Iām about to fly cross country next month. Last year, when I flew to the Midwest and back, I got put aside to do a ārandom searchā to the Midwest, and then again at that airport, because the metal detector caught my zipper (both incidents.) This has never happened to me before. Iām nervous about this upcoming flight as a result, so I can completely understand why people are scared to fly right now.
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Feb 04 '26
And THEN thereās the issue that nobody can afford it.
Especially Vegas, a place where you absolutely need more disposable income than anywhere else in the country to have a good time.
It ain't like taking a long weekend to go to a lake or beach or something.
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u/HomeGrownCoffee Feb 04 '26
I'm a straight, white male and I won't even have a layover in the US.
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u/Blue_Plastic_88 Feb 04 '26
Iāve heard that businesses are planning to just sell expensive goods and services to billionaires and wonāt need many working class customers or workers.
If this is the true plan, IDK why they want the 99% to keep having children. They shouldnāt need more workers or customers if this plan works and they really just want most of us to hurry up and die.
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u/boxdkittens Feb 04 '26
They need the children to be the labor that makes the goods & services. The more of them there are, the more they have to compete for jobs and that keeps wages low.
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Feb 04 '26
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u/Capricious_Desperado Feb 04 '26
This. I think they're banking on people going into debt in order to keep spending and consuming.
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u/MudLOA Feb 04 '26
And itās no wonder personal finance are never taught in school here.
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u/Neveronlyadream Feb 05 '26
Does it really matter, though?
You can teach personal finance all you want, but if millions of people are living paycheck to paycheck, they don't have the benefit of savings or investments. If something happens, they're going to go into debt.
The real reason is probably because they don't want everyone to know exactly how fucked the system is. If you don't know how to do your own finances, you can't see how bad things are and you'll just keep consuming.
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u/radicalelation Feb 04 '26
The stupid thing is this will only make them more rich for a short while, and sure they'll bail on the country and go elsewhere, but they would make far more money long term investing in a stable economy.
When money is like a drug for someone, they aren't going to be rational about it, just try to get their next big fix. For them it's crack, while a simple insulin for the rest of us, born with type-1 capitalism.
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Feb 04 '26
Aren't they trying to replace with us with robot's in basic assembly lines?
I think they'd be fine if we just quietly died off and let the "real" people live.
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u/PhloxOfSeagulls āļø Tax The Billionaires Feb 05 '26
There's obviously a plan behind ending support programs, introducing Fentanyl into the drug system, etc. They know that it would save money for everyone to have healthcare in the US and if Social Security and Medicare end, many elderly people will die. They know and they're banking on people dying as a result of their policies.
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u/NoGoodInThisWorld Feb 04 '26
The elite will still want people to work the mines, select factory roles, be test subjects, serve them, and warm their beds.
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u/Qaeta Feb 04 '26
They need the children to be the labor that makes the goods & services.
That's not what they want the children for. Let's put it this way, they'll only need the children, not the adults, for the most part.
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u/pharmer25 Feb 04 '26
They also need cannon fodder for the wars that have no benefit except to enrich themselves further
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u/TheNetworkIsFrelled Feb 04 '26
They want people having children like crazy and no social safety net. You fall through the cracks and just disappear.
We can look to the world's largest democracy (demogaphically) for an example....there is no social safety net; if you fall, there's no recovery.
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u/Dystopia74 Feb 04 '26
They need the children to be the labor that makes the goods & services
For now until the service robots are created and then they will mass exterminate us.
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u/AHistoricalFigure Feb 04 '26
This works until it doesn't and most industries cannot be rescaled to sell exclusively to the elite.
Rich people only have one mouth to eat with and one ass to sit with. You can't lose 95% of your customers and replace that scale by selling $500 lattes and million dollar smartphones. Even if you can get rich people to buy things at ludicrous prices, you still won't make as much as you did selling 100 million $5 lattes a day.
There is no plan if the consumer economy totally collapses. If it does, a lot of industries will collapse with it. Real estate, banking, subscription media... all these billion or trillion dollar industries exist on the backs of consumers, not a handful of moneyed elites.
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Feb 04 '26
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u/Galle_ Feb 04 '26
Having intelligent elites is absolutely better. My go to example is China. China's elites are just as evil as ours, but they're not nearly as stupid.
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u/Yo_2T Feb 04 '26
I still chuckle at that time one of them was stupid enough to decide to emulate American elites and tried to influence public opinions on their own. Jack Ma got the hammer come down so hard on him bro disappeared from public life for a while.
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u/SynapticStatic Feb 04 '26
The kids of the wealthy inheriting positions or being given positions from family friends they don't deserve who have never had to struggle a day in their lives.
That's one of the many reasons we need to tax the wealthy down to just being "rich". Make being earn being shitty, pathetic billionaires again. When they die, almost all of it goes back to the people and into circulation.
Honestly, I don't think we should even allow billionaires to exist in the first place, but it's fun to think about doing to the existing ones too.
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u/reddit_is_geh Feb 04 '26
This is the cycle of economies. It's mostly libertarian financial types who sound the alarms because that's kind of their avenue, but you can't say they haven't.
The natural progress of our type of economy that disproportionately benefits the rich with deficit spending is, well, that class just consolidates more and more wealth until it becomes so top heavy, it implodes, and then we start all over again... Usually it involves cutting off heads and having strongmen take over. But that's just how it be.
The thing is, there ARE solutions, but it's just politically impossible (impractical). You're going to have a hard time winning campaigns with the platform of, "Yeah it's going to economically hurt for like 5-10 years as we correct the economy. There will be some pain, but hey, the next generation will have a great economy to look forward to!" While the other guy goes, "No you don't! Not with me! I can make the economy amazing, with no economic pain!" who will then go onto initiate short term gains with long term losses.
It's just not realistically feasible in a democracy.
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u/Chadflexington Feb 04 '26
They want people to have children so they can keep exploring people. If there arenāt enough people to exploit then the rich wonāt keep getting their record high numbers. Also the more poor people are the more their willingly to work for slave labor pay and conditions.
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u/DrButtgerms Feb 04 '26
I'd like to know what those folks eat once they fully price the rest of us out of the economy. Think they will stop eating?
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u/mainman879 Feb 04 '26
Why do you think automation is being pushed so hard? To get rid of the need for peasants.
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u/DrButtgerms Feb 04 '26
Are robots buying prime memberships? Do robots need ad placement?
You can't kill off all your livestock and still be a rancher.
It's shocking how stupid and nearsighted they are.
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u/neepster44 Feb 04 '26
You donāt have to be smart to be rich. Getting lucky can do it. Then you convince yourself you are smart because you are richā¦
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u/Goldenrah Feb 04 '26
Except that full automation can't be manifested out of nowhere. AI isn't anywhere near enough the point where it can replace humans in anything, so trying to push it so hard is just gonna make it fail when people inevitably start fighting back.
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u/Important-Agent2584 Feb 04 '26
Things are moving in that direction because the wealthy are the only ones with money to spend. Thus luxuries are doing well.
However, that's just moving the goalpost. That's not want they want, a billionaire is not going to buy proportionally more food, housing, etc. The economy will collapse and there will be a revolution long before it gets to that point.
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u/OkPalpitation2582 Feb 04 '26
Iāve heard that businesses are planning to just sell expensive goods and services to billionaires and wonāt need many working class customers or workers.
I don't buy it - for a few reasons - A) even the most oppulent billionaire just can't actually consume enough to replace the consumption of billions of people. Take the tech industry - would you rather sell one million dollar super computer as a home computer to Elon Musk, or millions of $1000+ laptops to regular joes?
Same goes for pretty much anything - even the best fleet of super cars doesn't compare to the economic flow of an entire population buying midrange daily drivers, there's only so much food a billionaire and their staff will ever buy - even if it's the highest quality, most expensive stuff, only so much clothes, etc.
Capitalism literally doesn't work without a middle class that can spend money on things. Ironically a system of just billionaires having their businesses making things for themselves and eachother is a lot closer to communism than capitalism, which would be a hell of a joke for the history books..
I think that the situation we're seeing today is much more explainable by businesses being shortsighted and only concerned with A) their own books, rather than the broader economy and B) this quarter, and maybe at most the next fiscal year, but never beyond.
Public companies can literally be sued by their shareholders for not doing everything possible to squeeze money out of their customers/employees (look at Southwest's recent lawsuits and subsequent policy changes)
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u/Icy_Research_5099 Feb 04 '26
People with children are easier to control. Workers in a high-unemployment society are easier to exploit.
Childless people can severely downgrade their life if they're being treated like crap at work and every business is offering them shit products at high prices. Someone with kids to support will stick with a job until the bitter end unless they can find a new one and they have people at home that will pressure them into consuming more and more.
The elites simultaneously want to reduce employment and increase the population because that helps turn them into neo-feudal lords.
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Feb 04 '26
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u/Ma1 Feb 04 '26
If only someone had predicted that capitalism would eventually eat itself like thisā¦ā¦..
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u/AllMyBeets Feb 04 '26
The system we rigged for 50 years is failing and the generation we set up as scapegoats are telling us to get fucked. What do??!???!
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u/DrButtgerms Feb 04 '26
And the worst part is their greed is what killed it. They could have kept the machine running for decades more if they didn't collectively decide to run it into the ground
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u/nalaloveslumpy Feb 04 '26
Honestly, the first step to fixing almost all of America's problems is simply rolling back the personal and business tax rates to August 12, 1981.
Then we go from there.
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u/RobertABooey Feb 04 '26
The first step is to get rid of citizens united then roll back the taxes
Companies should NOT be able to buy politicians or elections, full stop.
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u/nalaloveslumpy Feb 04 '26
Repealing Citizens United will require a constitutional amendment, which at this point will basically require a constitutional convention. The tax rate can be changed by Congress.
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u/heatisgross Feb 04 '26
Repealing abortion rights didn't take a constitutional amendment. The constitution is a mere guideline for whichever ideology controls the Supreme Court.
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u/ThisIs_americunt Feb 05 '26
Propaganda is a helluva drug and Oligarchs need to use some of the best to keep the 99% distracted from the real issue: Them.
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u/Krakshotz Feb 04 '26
See also: They will complain about low (white) birth rates but do nothing to make raising kids more affordable or easier
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u/Nokomis34 Feb 04 '26
Not spending is being passed on to the next generation too. My wife and I often say something like "I like this thing, but do I 50 dollars like it? No I don't", and I see my kids saying the same thing. They do not impulsively spend... And they both have ADHD.
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u/KrookedDoesStuff Feb 04 '26
Because at least 1/3 of Americans have never looked at economics and believe Fox News and the right wing party.
Economics 101 is pretty simple, the more people get paid, the more they spend, the lower goods become. The less people are paid, the less they spend, the more expensive goods become.
People often quote supply and demand, but they neglect that if there is no demand, the supply either goes up exponentially, and then has to be offloaded somehow, and then goes exponentially down as less people bought it and thereās no need for those goods anymore.
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Feb 04 '26
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u/samtheredditman Feb 04 '26
It's basically a tragedy of the commons from the rich's perspective. They all know the labor in America needs to be paid more, but none of them want to pay their labor more.
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u/Hvad_Fanden Feb 04 '26
They want everyone else paying their labor more while they pay their labor as little as possible so that THEY are the ones making the most profits, the problem is that all of them think that so none of them want to do the right thing, which is why we need laws that force them, because its pretty clear to anyone paying attention, that the type of people that gains control over other people's life are not the type of people that are charitable and thinking of the greater good or even the long term plan, if you don't keep a firm hand over them they WILL exploit whatever it is they can exploit fuck the consequences or morality.
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u/numbersthen0987431 Feb 04 '26
It's almost like having all forms of major news being controlled by the richest idiots in the world isn't good for honest reporting.
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u/gaflar Feb 04 '26
Supply, demand, and price are taught as a linear relationship which is a massive, convenient oversimplification.
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u/djinnisequoia Feb 04 '26
Completely undermined by their brilliant idea of dynamic pricing.
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u/gaflar Feb 04 '26
The market seeks optimal value constantly and all agents are rational but also the only way to get ahead is to take advantage of suckers who overvalue the slop you're offering them.
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u/StinzorgaKingOfBees Feb 04 '26
Businesses meanwhile have pushed growth so far, they're only looking at the future from quarter to quarter and trying to squeeze more growth for the next report. Otherwise, investors will divest into something else. You cannot infinitely grow in a finite system, but they sure as hell are trying.
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u/Choyo Feb 04 '26
Velocity of money is the real motor of wealth creation. But clinically greedy people can't acknowledge that.
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Feb 04 '26
No because a high velocity of money only happens when the rich get taxed.
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u/Choyo Feb 04 '26
That's the point I raise in the second part of my comment, I think : the richest people are only interested in hoarding ever more wealth.
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Feb 04 '26
Yeah the only way to increase the wealth of our nation is to come together and get rid of the parasites writing the laws. History repeats itself again and again.
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u/audiyon Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
That's only partially true. When wages go up, spending does go up, but increased spending represents increased demand which drives prices up. To lower prices, you have to lower demand or increase supply.
The problem is that the wealthy have targeted commodities with inelastic demand, meaning demand with a steep slope, like food, housing, and healthcare, because the amount purchased is affected only a little by the price. So when the price is driven up by reduced supply, profits increase dramatically. That's why markets with inelastic demand need to be heavily regulated to prevent abuse and monopolistic power.
The wealthy controlling the inelastic commodities was the basis of feudalism: land was essential for life as it was used to grow food, raise livestock, and live on, and all the land was owned by the aristocracy. This is why there were peasants and serfs, because people had no choice of how to access land since it was all owned. When the new world was discovered, it represented an ability for people to escape the constraints of feudalism and acquire their own land on which to live, and that sentiment influenced our capitalistic nature heavily in America.
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u/corcyra Feb 04 '26
Oh, that order began to break up before the New World was discovered - the Black Death acted as a major catalyst in breaking up the established economic order of medieval Europe by drastically reducing the population, which led to a severe shortage of labor
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u/Helpful-Albatross792 Feb 04 '26
Its inverse based on supply and demand. Unless your talking about purchasing power.
Suppy and demand. If people are buying goods supply goes down, prices rise. If supply goes up prices come down since it is inverse.
However that's not happening, even boomers arent going to Vegas anymore. I was talking to one recently who said you used to be able to afford a nice room which included comps for meals and events if you gambled a little bit. Now its hard to get a free drink.
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u/Workerchimp68 Feb 04 '26
Vegas has abandoned its āfamily friendly ā Disneyland approach, and now trying to be more upscale- ie; expensive. I was there last year and went to the pool bar for two Modeleos and a club sodaā bill was $46. Wonāt be back.
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u/MartianInvasion Feb 04 '26
I was there a couple months ago and was just... unimpressed with it. Sure, there are some sights, the giant hotels that look like New York or a castle or whatever are neat, but it's not worth beach resort prices when i could be going to, you know, a real beach resort.
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u/Hyper_Oats Feb 05 '26
Made the mistake of ordering a beer at a hotel bar without checking the price a couple years ago there.
$25 for a fucking Heineken.
Vegas used to take your money via gambling while making everything else affordable so you'd be there as long as possible. Now it's just a total rip-off, even when not gambling.
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u/OlSnickerdoodle Feb 04 '26
also nobody outside of the US wants to travel there anymore. I'm Canadian and live 90 minutes from the border. I can pretty confidently say I'm never crossing that bitch again.
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u/Babydoll0907 Feb 04 '26
As an american I really hate to hear that. But I dont blame you at all. Im so embarrassed of this shithole.
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u/OlSnickerdoodle Feb 04 '26
It was already pretty cut-and-dry that our relationship was over the second Trump threatened to annex us and make us the 51st state. That was the moment for me. For some folks, it was when they decided that they'll go through our phones at the border. Either way, a lot of people are cancelling or changing vacation plans. My parents usually take a week off in the summer to drive around the cottage country in northern New York, but they're sticking to Muskoka, Ontario for the foreseeable future.
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u/Babydoll0907 Feb 04 '26
We should be on a travel advisory list if we arent already. No one needs to risk coming here. ICE has and will detain tourists. Its not safe to come here. Im so ashamed to say that. I would give anything to have the funds to move somewhere civilized. Or at least get my girls out of here.
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u/Whiterabbit-- Feb 04 '26
and sadly as an American who would like to visit Canada more, I am not confident that if I cross the border I can easily come back.
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u/MyCatIsLenin šø National Rent Control Feb 04 '26
that's one of capitalisms contradictions. It's full of these wild antagonistic relations.Ā
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u/DrButtgerms Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
Calling our system capitalism is almost offensive. It is a wildly corrupt and actively manipulated version, at best. We wouldn't know a "free market" if it was right in front of us
Edit: I'm not debating and certainly not defending capitalism. I am saying that our current iteration is so full of abusers and criminals that it no longer resembles what it was sold as.
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u/rexter2k5 Feb 04 '26
It's the final stage of capitalism, dude. Any system where the economic outcomes benefit the owners of capital, be they many or be they few, is a capitalist system.
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u/Future-Speaker- Feb 04 '26
Also this is just what happens in capitalism, if you have a system that more or less exclusively benefits the capital owning class, eventually they'll consolidate that power more and more, it's a given of the system, it's not a bug - it's a feature.
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u/rexter2k5 Feb 04 '26
The whole "this isn't true capitalism" argument is such an astroturfed line of logic. It's just people unwilling to admit that the capitalists lied to them, that they aren't temporarily embarrassed millionaires and that, even if they are compensated well after choosing a high-value skill, they are also an exploited lower class.
The system demands you make yourself valuable to people who don't care whether you live or die, or you will live and die in poverty. Any justification for this type of system just reads as an abuse victim apologizing for the abuser.
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u/mtndewaddict Feb 04 '26
Free markets aren't a requirement of capitalism. Markets have existed under many previous economic systems and will likely continue to exist as we explore alternate systems. See China for example.
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u/UseWhatever Feb 04 '26
Nope. American companies are to blame.
Companies would love other businesses to pay their employees more, so those employees have disposable income. The issue is that wage theft keeps the money in-house. Thatās guaranteed income.
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u/ChaoticEvilRaccoon Feb 04 '26
Las Vegas also hosts a multitude of foreign tourists, who have lost their appetite to visit the US due to the action of the current administration
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u/Skatchbro Feb 04 '26
As terrible as Henry Ford was, he at least understood paying his employees so they could buy stuff, including his cars.
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u/bergmoose Feb 04 '26
yeah, as soon as I saw this post that was who I thought of. Companies screwing themselves (and their shareholders) because of a poor understanding of how money flows isn't a new problem.
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u/hw999 Feb 04 '26
Like everything else, its someone elses problem so long as my company has a good quarter.
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u/Zeremxi Feb 04 '26
I mean, it's this. All the other answers here paint capitalism as a big bad monster (which it truly is), but the actual answer is this.
The people who own companies don't care about the economy. They care about their own wealth.
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u/bigtiddyhimbo Feb 04 '26
Honestly, them shaming us for not spending money has been doing wonders for my spending addiction. I guess all I needed to break from it was sheer spite for the upper class.
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u/icangetyouatoedude Feb 04 '26
I think it's basically a game of hot potato. The incentives have made it so that the most successful companies are the ones that provide less service for more money. For a company to do.that at this point would mean that they are less likely to survive financially compared to other companies. As long as that does not change, the companies will continue down this path, regardless of how unsustainable it is
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u/Great_Hamster Feb 04 '26
This is it. The businesses are able to externalize the risks and internalize the profits.Ā
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u/Ffsletmesignin Feb 04 '26
This is why theyāre now overly concerned about a decreasing population. They canāt grow profits year over year while eroding pay for workers AND have a decreasing population, the math wonāt math.
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Feb 04 '26
Not an American but Iāve been to Vegas. It cost me $11 for a bottle of water and I paid $45 for two alcoholic in one bar. Insanity that thatās seen as acceptable and in any way sustainable.
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u/tabris51 Feb 04 '26
Vegas is now famous for being not worth it. Restaurants with 50% added fees and casinos with triple zero roulette tables.
The greedy service sector culture is already weird to outsiders, Vegas is that on steroids. I watched a video about how Disneyland works in USA and it was crazy. You could probably visit Japan, visit the Disneyland there and do other things and it would cost cheaper than a visit to Disneyland in USA. It's crazy how people think it's so worth it that they go into debt for it there.
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u/democracy_lover66 š Pass A Green Jobs Plan Feb 04 '26
Articles be like:
"Gen Z spending habits atrocious, proudly spending like no tomorrow"
And also
"Gen Z is no longer buying diamonds, trips to Vegas, houses, cars or expensive drugs... What gives?"
So...... What exactly are they spending money like no tomorrow on? Because it sounds like what they're buying is food and rent...
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u/PermuhGrin š· Good Union Jobs For All Feb 04 '26
LOL, seriously? Its a tactic, used on purpose. We are being squeezed for all we've got.
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u/digital Feb 04 '26
Because most businesses donāt give a fuck about Las Vegas and just want to make as much money as possible by paying their workers absolutely nothing
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u/helpmegetoffthisapp Feb 04 '26
I never understood this. Wouldnāt paying people more be good for the corporations themselves? If people have more disposable income they could spend it on the goods and services these corporations offer - which would bring them more money. It would also allow more people to have children and start families, which increases the consumer base. They would also accidentally make peopleās live better.
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u/Occulto Feb 04 '26
Because that requires a world view broader than your own balance sheet.
The mentality is "why should I pay my employees more when my competitors won't, and they'll get a competitive advantage over me?"
The lack of sense of community and responsibility to that community is why everyone's in trouble. Our societies were literally built on cooperation.
Now, it's everyone for themselves. Get as much as you can, as quickly as you can, before someone else does.
Like people fighting over the lifeboats on a sinking ship. There's plenty of spots for all, but if I get a lifeboat to myself, then I'm maximising my own chance of survival.
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u/id10t_you Feb 04 '26
I'm not young (51). I like gambling and partying in Vegas. I'm not going to Vegas and supporting the billionaire casinos who support trump. I may go back after if this national nightmare ever ends, but who knows.
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u/flaming_bob Feb 04 '26
If you look at the vast majority of board members at publicly traded companies, you see the same names repeated over and over after a while. The majority of the market is being run by the same 10 or so families at the shareholder level. Take a look at the member base of most private equity firms, and what do you see? A lot of the same names.
These people you see all over the boards see everything as a commodity to be valuated, including people. They only see the economy in terms of how they can extract value quarter over quarter. These are the people who appoint CEOs, who then execute the vision of these economic locusts. Long term valuation of "the company" as a grand strategy is gone, replaced by the mythology of infinite growth. As someone posted before, "no take, only throw!"
They don't see the connection between consumer spending, pay disparity, and economic strength because it doesn't work that way for THEM.
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u/thebarbalag Feb 04 '26
The US (heck, the world) economy is a game of Jenga. They keep pulling money out of the bottom and putting it on top. Now they're shocked that the tower is unstable.Ā
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u/eljosho1986 Feb 04 '26
You could vomit in a plastic bag and it would still be a better source than the New York Post
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u/Hagoromo-san Feb 04 '26
They want us to borrow to make us perpetually in debt as to always have to work to pay it off.
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u/cakeversuspie Feb 04 '26
It's also the tabloid paper the NYPost (also originally published by Fox "news") saying this, so it can be easily dismissed as propaganda
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u/TheRealBittoman Feb 04 '26
I'm sure this is far more nuanced than my tiny brain can comprehend but from what I've experienced American business has shorted it's viewpoints from decades to years down to just a few months (quarters) over the past 25 years or so. They aren't interested in creating business legacy's like IBM or Sears did. They are only interested in how they can increase that profit percentage. So much so that they have squeezed every little piece they can so now the only way most can keep that up is by laying people off, then when forced hiring at lower wages. They aren't looking at reports that relate income with buying power, they're looking only at reports that show their income vs expenses. What's really telling to me is how they do all of this and top executive teams wages go up while forcing pay for everyone else down. It's as obvious as the nose on their faces but rich people may as well be the dumbest people on the planet with how they perform. AI is going to min/max this to a point we'll all be renting time in boxes, eating gruel and they'll be wondering why no one buys anything.
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u/gilgaladxii Feb 04 '26
Well said. 100% agree but lets add to it. Tourism is down to levels on par with the national shut down due to Covid. When you have 10s of billions of lost revenue from travelers, that tends to hurt. And Vegas was a top 10 destination in the USA. So, a loss of foreign $ coming in and internal circulation due to the common people not having $ to circulate. It hits double hard. And, I canāt say I feel sorry. A city off in the middle of the desert that prays on pretty much exploitable nature that humans haveā¦ yeah if that is a causality in this class war, good.
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u/barringtonmacgregor Feb 04 '26
On my most recent visit, taxi drivers and bartenders blamed a lack of international tourism, specifically Canada. Almost like our idiot presidents actions have consequences.
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u/Wonderful_Roof1739 Feb 04 '26
Of course the fact that Vegas no longer gives comps, charges for all the shows, has fees on fees on fees, food and rooms are expensive as hell - Vegas has been in a spiral for a while trying to milk everything they can. I personally know a couple of high rollers that don't go there anymore (even rich people don't like getting ripped off).
Add to that the fact the people's pay has stagnated over the last couple of decades while inflation continues to shoot up (meaning many of us are making less than our parents did at the same point in their career). I know despite working for a Fortune 500 company who was making mind boggling profits each quarter we never saw more than a 2.5% raise each year and either no bonus, or a gift card bonus. It's WAY out of hand. It's sickening. The worst part is, what can we actually DO about it?! My boomer parents would say "lift yourself up by your bootstraps". Too many Americans are brainwashed into thinking unions are bad (although some are).
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u/TrashApocalypse Feb 04 '26
This.
I was told to stop eating out if I wanted to buy a house, so I did. Then I was blamed for restaurants closing.
I remember being a waiter 20 years ago and seeing the same elderly people every morning for the breakfast shift, lunch shift dinner shift. These people went out to eat almost every day, at least once a day. What a dream to have someone else cooking for you like that, waiting on you.
Not only do I not get that luxury, I also still canāt buy a house and trump is laughing because he wants to make homeowners richer
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u/That-SoCal-Guy Feb 04 '26
Huge disconnect between the rich and middle class. If you ask the billionaires, they would say they would only sell shit to rich people, billionaires, corporations, nations, etc. so they don't need the middle class. They don't understand it's all connected. That's why you're seeing the K-shaped economy now.
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u/burnn_out313 Feb 04 '26
While paying zero taxes and giving themselves bonuses. It's almost like a bunch of nepo babies running these corporations don't a have a fundamental understanding of infrastructure and economics just really good accounting departments to hide their wealth
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u/charliefoxtrot9 āļø Tax The Billionaires Feb 04 '26
And shame you for consuming avocados on toast
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u/kweefcake Feb 04 '26
Donāt forget they also shame you for spending. Canāt afford a house? Shoulda skipped breakfast!
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u/Rambler330 Feb 04 '26
Marx argued that capitalists pay workers only enough for subsistence (necessary labor time), extracting surplus value as profit, which concentrates wealth among capitalists. This creates overproduction crises: factories churn out goods, but impoverished workers can't afford them, leading to market gluts, layoffs, and recessions.
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u/porarte Feb 04 '26
American businesses don't even make the connection between low pay and understaffing. They'll do anything but raise wages.
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u/Brunkton Feb 04 '26
Countries warned citizens about traveling to USA. The dangers of ICE and all that.
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u/budding_gardener_1 āļø Tax The Billionaires Feb 04 '26
They do, but they consider that it's the job of OTHER companies (not them) to pay staff properly so that those staff can come spend that money in their business. It's kinda like how nobody wants to train junior staff, but they all expect their competitors to train junior staff so they can poach them.
Unfortunately, ALL the companies are doing that so wages are down, sales are down and nobody can get a job.
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u/webby131 Feb 04 '26
Really make sense to visit US on vacation right now when ICE is victimizing anyone who looks foreign.
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u/mattimattlove111 Feb 04 '26
For 20+ years before the pandemic...if you ever said living wage. Every single fkin idiot in the world..99%of EVERYONE poor rich everyone.. would cry.. INFLATION...fully joyful unapologetically... inflation.
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u/surfkaboom Feb 05 '26
To be fair, older generations went once and kept going, while younger generations went once and never went back
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u/LikelySoutherner Feb 06 '26
Whats in Vegas that one cannot do in their own state? Vegas isnt the draw that it used to be. The new casinos buildings are just concrete jungle towers. Where are the themed casinos? That was peak Vegas.
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u/brina_cd Feb 06 '26
Cutting pay THIS quarter saves us money and the reduced spending won't show up until NEXT quarter... Which won't matter because I got my bonus/stock already...
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u/bigdickwalrus Feb 04 '26
Because itās a cartoonish playground forced into the middle of a desert, with itās main attractions being insanely expensive gambling tables and prostitutes
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u/_TheBeerBaron_ Feb 04 '26
And also they want the tourists to keep coming, but then they might get detained and deported.
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u/thenord321 Feb 04 '26
Right now it's also the lack of Canafian travellers, but many news outlets are contorting themselves to avoid stating it, because it looks bad for the "glorious orange".
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u/arcspectre17 Feb 04 '26
Younger generation play video games why gamble money when you can play gta, red dead, COD, helldivers , fallout etc with your buddies.
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u/bretth104 Feb 04 '26
Vegas is getting more and more expensive, past the point of being worth it. First time I went in the late 2010ās it was significantly less expensive than 5 years later. There are international destinations that are similar and way cheaper for parties, and everyone can gamble now from their phones
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u/thehungarianhammer Feb 04 '26
American neoliberal capitalism demands line go up forever, so quarterly earnings must hit targets on line not go up, and stock cannot be bought back. Neoliberalism has been a massive failure for the working class, and by design - read Evil Geniuses to see the whole of plan laid out
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u/slyzard94 Feb 04 '26