comment: >
  
  So, as we all knew anyways, the COVID pandemic was used as convenient cover to preoccupy the public while the Corporate world, according to a well respected business journal claims, raked in over 12 TRILLION dollars, last year. If that doesn't enrage you, probably nothing will.
context: $56B is equal to $1,775 every second for the entire year. >
  
  That's $745,500 in the 7 minutes between your post and this one. >
  
  that almost covers the cost of an ER visit! >
  
  You haven't gotten the bill from the anesthesia group yet, that'll come separate. >
  
  WHY DO THEY DO THIS!?!?!
  you pay $800 for a procedure that requires anesthesia then 3 months later you get another bill for $700 for the anesthesia. >
  
  Because they're crooks. >
  
  Anyway to fight this or make their lives miserable. What if we don’t pay? They coming for my car? >
  
  Your credit can be ruined because somehow those aren’t considered “medical bills” because the anesthesiologist is often considered an independent contractor. >
  
  That seems about right for these crooks. I didn’t know that. >
  
  Never forget what piece of shit Exxon did to the Prince William Sound in Alaska >
  
  Don’t read the litigation section of that Wikipedia article. It’ll fucking enrage you even more! They pissed around the law for years and went from having to pay 5 billion in punitive damages to only 500 
  To put it in common person amounts:
  If you made 60,000/year salary, your fine would have been around $5000 but it was reduced instead to $500 because multiple lawyers argued that you already paid $1000 in civil lawsuits for destroying over 200miles of habitat. 
  What a load of dog shit! >
  
  And it took like 20 years!!! American Scandal podcast has a great series on it. Fucking criminal bastards. >
  
  Why do they still get government subsidies? This shit is obscene. >
  
  It's called corporate welfare!! And people complain about giving food stamps to the poor!! >
  
  It drives me crazy that people from a certain political party bitch about the "welfare state" that take shots at the poorest people, yet don't say anything about corporate welfare.  These giant corporations don't need the extra income, whereas the poorest do. >
  
  Exactly, it has been reported the total compensation of the ExxonMobil CEO was $26,000,000 for 2021.
  More than likely, when this person retires he will use Medicare like the rest of us. But until that time, these same individuals often rail against the average employee receiving a living wage!! >
  
  Medicare doesn’t exclude the rich. No income limit. If it’s cheaper to use Medicare then he will. >
  
  At that pace, profits from just from one oil company could fund the entire US transit project backlog in under four years. >
  
  I think it's more important that a bunch of old rich white guys get some more generational wealth. >
  
  The majority shareholders of oil companies are mutual funds and retirement portfolios.
  It’s real easy to shit where you eat and fall for anti-capitalist rage bait, forgetting that the bulk of “increased share price” and those awful corporate profits are primarily benefiting the average worker both in terms of retirement savings (because GenX already knows that the current government programs for that will be long gone) and union pensions, but also in the form of lower insurance premiums for literally everything as the markets are themselves part of that whole mix. >
  
  I dont entirely disagree, but you gotta be able to get yourself a piece of the investment funds in order to see the benefit, which is becoming increasingly difficult to do. and giving a nod to the benefit of union pensions - not really arguing against an anti-capitalist sentiment. 
  "because GenX already knows that the current government programs for that will be long gone" - isn't that just an example of pulling up the ladder on their way up?  should we be making short term profits at the expense of long term climate impact? and record profits at a time when many countries are dealing with the most rapid increase in inflation in decades? it's hard to get too excited about a profit statement like this without feeling all the strings attached. >
  
  In the US, Social Security will be bankrupt by the time GenX starts retiring in just over a decade, because the demographics mean that there are fewer people to pay for it. If anyone has been yanking the ladder up, it’s the parents of GenX who implemented these systems solely to benefit themselves, and to hell with anyone that follows. Social Security’s solvency is entirely dependent on high birth rates and unsustainably high GDP growth. Several European countries and their social safety nets have already fallen off the demographic cliff. 
  Oh, and for extra funsies, fewer workers also drives wage inflation. And then couple that with an isolationist immigration policy that keeps an increased labor pool (which funds all that government) out of the country, and you’re headed for fiscal disaster. >
  
  I’m expecting to read a similar headline next year about one of the leading egg producers. >
  
  Likely the one behind Eggland's Best. I read that they were unaffected by the flu breakout but their prices are still high. My store has a 2 dozen pack for $6.99 but everything else is ridiculous and way worse. >
  
  The store I work at they’re the least expensive. >
  
  One thing people need to include in their egg price rants is their location and how long they’ve lived there.
  Since COVID began, the US Sunbelt has seen a massive influx of population. Tons more people fighting for the same amount of resources. 6 of the top 10 cities affected by inflation are in this area.
  I’m not saying these prices aren’t bullshit. The government stands by watching the poor and middle class be crushed. Historically companies hurt during inflation, too. This isn’t true inflation, it’s a massive gouge.