Was just trying to explain to someone why everything is going to shit, specifically companies, and realized, I don’t fully get it either.

I’ve got the following explanation. The sentences marked with “???” are were I’m lost. Anyone mind telling me, if they’re correct and if so, why?

The past few years, central banks were giving out interest rates of 0% or even negative percentages. Regular banks would not quite pass this on, but you could still loan money and give it back later with no real interest payments.

This lead to lots of people investing in companies. As long as those companies paid out more money than those low interest rates, it was worthwhile. But at the same time, this meant companies didn’t have to be profitable, because they could pay out investors from money that other investors gave them???

This has stopped being the case, as central banks are hiking interest rates again, to combat inflation???

    • lemmyseizethemeans@lemmygrad.ml
      396·
      11 months ago

      Long answer is read Marx, understand how capitalism leads to monopoly, monopoly leads to price gouging and collusion to prevent competition, and poverty exists because wealthy people suck up all the capital from a society. Imagine a billion dollars. That’s a thousand million. Then hundreds of billions by 20 people.

      We’re in late stage capitalism and the enshittification is accelerating.