[joelegner]

If so, how do said corporations get access to the the money that would have previously gone to savings?

More plausible to me is the idea that stimulus — printing new money by fiat — resulted in more cash in circulation. Corporations are like organisms that have evolved to capture and eat cash. They fed on the surplus cash, and their waistlines show it afterwards.

Meanwhile those of us with savings accounts pay the price when inflation reduces the buying power of the cash we had diligently set aside for future use.

[whateveracct]

Well usually I save my surplus cash. But if stuff costs more, I now save less implicitly. That is corporations getting access to my savings by raising prices. They aren't getting any stimulus money from me here because I never got any.

[latchkey]

> But if stuff costs more, I now save less implicitly.

Or you could just change your spending habits.

[whateveracct]

I could and am in a macro sense. But when things I normally buy are a little more expensive and I'm gonna buy them anyways (a grocery trip is a good example), I don't especially notice the haircut.

I guess you can blame me for not micromanaging every dollar I spend? But if I'm sitting in a drive thru grabbing a burger and fries and notice it's $5 more than it used to be, I'm probably still gonna buy the burger and fries. And I probably will still go grab one occasionally when I want it. Because saving $5 every so often isn't gonna really affect an activity that makes up a microscopic amount of my expenses (I've got fast food including coffee at 2.5% last I reviewed my data.)

But regardless I think what I'm describing is a real bit of human behavior at scale - and isn't that just economics at the end of the day?

[latchkey]

I don't know. Over the years, I've stopped drinking alcohol, eating fast food and cut down on pointless spending. Sure, grocery shopping is more expensive, so I also stopped buying certain items that also affect my health and the planet... most meat. I changed my spending habits to focus on becoming healthier and happier as I age. I look at my dad who, like his father, refused to change anything and decided to break the cycle.

$5 is $5... every penny counts.

[whateveracct]

I've been learning the same thing. I did a big review of my finances (downloads CSVs and crunched them) and found like $4000 of easy money .. across a bunch of in-a-vacuum "small" expenses I wouldn't balk at. That's a new water heater and then some!