Quote:I sincerely doubt that many business raise their prices as a result of rising cost.   That's not the way the marketplace works.  Generally speaking, businesses raise their prices because they can.   Not because they have to.   Look at it this way: if a business can raise their prices for ANY reason, why wouldn't they do so?   Wouldn't they want to maximize their profits?   They don't need to justify it by citing rising costs. 

 

If I go to a restaurant and find out that the Lasagna now costs $20 when it used to cost $12, my decision to buy is not based on anything but whether I want to pay $20 for that lasagna.   It has nothing to do with whether the restaurant owner now has to pay more for his labor.  That's his problem, not mine.  

 

It's like when people say high NFL ticket prices are a result of high player salaries.  That is not true.  NFL ticket prices are based on what people are willing to pay for tickets.  It's the same with lasagna in a restaurant.   The price of the lasagna is based  on what people are willing to pay for it. 

 

 

Quote:Okay.  Whatever.  Do you have anything to add in support of your assertion?   Just saying "Umm no." does not refute what  I said. 

 

In a free market, if a business can raise their price, they will.   Whether they can raise their price depends on what people are willing to pay for their product.   When they cite rising costs as a justification for raising their prices, they are conning you.  They are raising their price so they can make as much money as possible.   That's the way a market-based economic system works. 

 

The lasagna at the restaurant costs what it does because that is the most the restaurant can charge and still get you to buy it.   The price isn't going to go up and down because of the cost of production.   It's going to go up and down based on what you are willing to pay. 

 

 

Quote:It was not dismissed as untrue. What was brought up was that if you could charge higher prices, in most cases, the business would charge higher prices. That was what you are referring to no?

 

In my experience, the smaller the place the higher the prices. I chose to pay more to support those places. If they did raise their prices (for whatever reason) I would keep going as long as the service/product remained the same mostly due to my disdain for the walmarts of the world. 

 

I would argue that the above quotes certainly claim to refute that businesses don't raise prices due to the higher cost of doing business.  Those two quotes are just from looking at page one of this thread.

 

One of the typical liberal keywords is "profit(s)".  Making a profit is considered "obscene" to them.

 

I can understand you wanting to support the "mom and pops" that make up the vast majority of small businesses.  I actually try to do the same.  However, I do have a "mental" line in my head that I draw when choosing where I do business.  As a simple example, I had to replace some plumbing in my kitchen recently.  I can go to Home Depot or Lowes and get the parts that I need for say $10, and I would have a choice as to which brand I could choose.  If I go to a local hardware store, I don't have much choice, and the cost is going to be $20.  I'm going to go with the $10 option.

 

Now why is there such a price difference?  It's all about the cost of doing business.  Part of it is the brand name of a product, but another part of it is the cost to run a business.  The small hardware store hypothetically needs to hire a couple of people to work there, and they pay minimum wage.  Their plumbing parts used to cost around $13, something that I would pay.  However, they are forced to raise their minimum wage that they pay their employees, so now they either must lay at least one employee off, or raise their prices.  The alternative is to make less profit.  It's likely that the business owner is pretty much middle class and pays himself out of the profit that he makes selling plumbing parts so if he doesn't reduce his cost by laying an employee off or raising prices, then it cuts into his income.

 

One other thing that is un-related to this thread is taxes.  That business owner not only reports his personal income (what he pays himself), he reports his profit on his personal tax return.  Thus he is in a higher tax bracket.

---