Hi Ranty Nation!  Ranty McRantyson har agin!

Har we are with nutter Back to Basics (B2B) article…

So, WHUT IS the big deal bout whut’s money?  Well, y’all gotta understand that it has everthin to do wit whether or not y’all gittin paid whut y’all’re wurth!

Over the course of the last 40-50 years, the wealth of the top 10% (especially in the top 1%) has risen a bunch. Sum edjumacated folk put those rich folk increasin they wealth over 400%.

On the other hand, “We, the People” (in other wurds, the bottom 90%) dun only increased our pay/wealth by 7-9% (after adjustin fur inflation an dependin on the study)!

How Rich Folk Thunk Bout Wurk

When it comes to money, ah’ve found that, there’re two kinds of folk. Those that wurk fur their money an those that don’t (whether or not they’re WURTH the money they dun be gettin paid is a whole nutter discussion!). Y’all might git an idea whut ah’m talkin bout frum this quote (obviously by sum folk who don’t have to wurk fur their money):

Gecko and Fly Money Rule #5: — https://bit.ly/2FXt0aE

Don’t work for money; rather, let money work for you. Nobody can become really rich and stay wealthy by working for money. If you keep working for money, you would just be doing that throughout your life.

Now ah’ll just ignore the apparnt disrespect fur, an lookin down on, wurkin folk, an deal wit the idea rich folk have that actually wurkin fur yur money ain’t a way to git rich.

Y’see, thar’s a basic problem in that idea.  To make money witout wurking fur it means that if’n y’all ain’t wurkin fur yur money, then y’all be stealin the wurk other folk’ve dun! Ah know that’s a strong statement, but let’s take a closer look at it frum an example.

The Example of Jeff Bezos’ Amazon.com “Riches”

Ah’m sure y’all have hurd of Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon.com.  (Ah’ve got similar stories bout Bill Gates, the Walmart family, an even Pres Donald J. Trump, jus to name a few!)  Durin the COVID-19 pandemic his wealth dun jumped frum bout $100 BILLION to over $150 BILLION… in less than 8 months!

I know, I know, y’all must be thunkin he dun be wurking harder than a one-legged tap dancer to “make” that much money.  But wit rich folk, they not only don’t think of money the same way, they dun “make” it differntly too.  He “made” that money cuz folk in the stock market THUNK Amazon.com’s wurth more today than 8 months ago.

Y’see Jeff Bezos did found an, so far as ah know, dun came up with the whole idea of Amazon.com.  Which means he owns A LOT of Amazon.com stock.  However, why don’t we’all just take a look at whut that means an, maybe, whut it shud mean.

Back in the 1980s, when ah started college ah took a couple economics (that’s a fancy way of saying “how the economy wurks”) classes.  In them classes, ah learned that it was “normal” fur “blue chip” stocks (thems were the most reliable stocks) to be valued at bout a 10:1 to 20:1 P&E ratio (that’s “price to earnins” ratio).  Whut that means is all the company’s stock was wurth bout $20/share fur ever $1/share the company earned as earnins (in other wurds, profit).  So if y’all saw a company that had a P&E ratio of 20:1 an earnins of $2/share, then the stock price wud be bout 20 times $2 = $40/share.  See, purty simple, right?

However, these days, most companies sumhow, almos magically, have P&E ratios bout 25:1 to up to 120:1, wit “tech companies” sumhow wurth toward the top end of that thar range.  — S&P 500 PE Ratio – 90 Year Historical Chart

So by now y’all probly be wunderin why ah’m talkin bout economic-like stuff.  Well, this kinda stuff is how rich folk thunk bout money.  Y’see, theys money comes frum the stock market.  An they dun even conned “We, the People” into thunkin that the “stock market” is the same as the “economy”.  It ain’t, but that’s fodder fur nutter article…

Fur a company’s stock value to go up, it has to increase its earnins per share.  In other wurds, it has to show its makin more money per share of stock.  They can make that earnins per share go up in one of two ways:

1. They can buy back stock so theys fewer shares an the earnins they’re makin is spread among fewer shares.  The problem is theys a limit to how much stock a company can usually buy back befur the stockholders stop sellin the stock to the company.
   
   Fur example, if’n a company has 1,000 shares of stock and made $10,000 in earnins, theys earnins per share wud be $10,000 divided by 1,000 shares = $10 earnins per share.  At a 20:1 P&E ratio, theys stock wud be wurth bout $10 times 20 = $200 per share. 
   
   If’n the company bought back 1/2 they stock (500 shares), then they’d only have 500 shares.  So $10,000 divided by 500 shares = $20 earnins per share.  At the same 20:1 P&E ratio, then theys stock wud be wurth bout $20 times 20 = $400 per share.
   
   
2. The other way, an, IMO, the best way, is to increase total earnins (profit).  That can be dun a couple differnt ways too. 
   
   The furst is to “jus sell more products” an Amazon.com dun bin doin that since folk bin stayin home cuz COVID-19.  The problem is that since folk be “a captive audience” (they can’t git out, so folk have to buy frum companies like Amazon.com) due to COVID-19, they can jack up the prices.  An that’s kinda like jackin up the prices of arms durin a war or medicine fur patients who can’t live witout that thar medicine.  Past a certain point it jus ain’t right!
   
   The second is to “cut costs”.  In the US, that usually starts wit cuttin wages fur the company’s employees.  Specially in a pandemic like COVID-19 where millions of folk dun lost they jobs, companies can tell theys employees if’n they don’t like the wages or how hard/fast the company wants them to wurk, they can jus go ahead an try to find nutter job! 
   
   So a company like Amazon.com whut dun already bin treatin theys employees kinda bad can really put on the pressure to get more wurk frum the employees at a lower wage… WHILE RISKIN THEYS LIVES CUZ OF COVID-19!  Doin thangs this way is very much like “indentured servitude“… they gotta wurk or they’all can starve!

So Whut’s Wrong Wit That?

Jeff Bezos, thru Amazon.com dun be practicin the second option to gittin his Amazon.com stock price to go up.  They’s three problems wit that. 

Furst, Amazon.com dun be uppin the pressure to git more packages shipped per person per shift.  That means they get less breaks an they have to wurk harder. 

Second, wit the increased pressure to git stuff dun, Amazon.com don’t seem to be supplyin enuf protective equipment to help keep theys employees safe.  They dun had sum purty big COVID-19 outbreaks in theys warehouses an sum of them folk’ve died. 

Third, theys employees ain’t makin more money to match wit whut additional profit (earnins) that Amazon.com is makin.  Cuz of this, theys pay per package is goin down, while Amazon.com’s profit per package is goin up!

How’s That Affect Me?

Remember that over the last 40 or so years, rich folk’s wealth has increased over 400%.  Over that same time regular folk’s pay dun only gone up by 7-9%.  Whut ah ain’t told y’all yet is that the Merican wurker’s productivity (how much wurk y’all do per dollar y’all git paid) has gone up by bout 250%. 

— The Productivity–Pay Gap

The bottom line is that productivity’s gone up 250%, but pay, in “today’s dollars” has only gone up 7-9%.  If’n wurkers pay had gone up even half as much as productivity, then wurker’s wud be gittin paid bout twice as much as they are right now!

So thunk bout it.  If’n the wurkers ain’t gittin paid fur the wurk they dun be doin, then who is?  The rich folk are, of course.  They bin takin the money the wurkers bin earnin.

The point is that there’s a reason why the wealth of the richest Mericans have increased by over $20 trillion over the last 40 years an “We, the People” are havin to have both parents in a family work longer hours an, fur a large majority of us, fur less pay (adjusted fur inflation or whut the economist folk call “today’s dollars”)!

So y’all are probly wunderin, “Well, Ranty, whut can we do?  The system is stacked aginst us!”

You’re right, the system is stacked aginst “We, the People”, but we can do sumthin bout it… an that’s fodder fur nutter article!  In the next article, B2B, Pt 4 – How Much is a Billion Dollars?, to git sum understandin bout just how much money we dun be talkin bout!

Ranty McRantyson signin off!