Just a reminder that the comm has moved to !historyphotos@piefed.social
this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2025
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They literally had this but fucked up the climate, future investions, infrastructure and pensions anyways
They got rich by doing all that. Well their kids.
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how was this possible? was there a deflation?
or was it the specificity of the product sugar that was made so expensive due to wartime restrictions on maritime trade?
The sign says "O.P.A. Ceiling Prices," so WWII-era price controls were probably the subject.
Between taxing the wealthy, nationalisation of key companies and assets, and this, seems like they had some really good policies back then.
Okay, but what about their freedom?
If you don't have the right to price gouge, how long until the government steals all your other liberties?
Sure, you'll enjoy a higher quality of life. But is it really worth it, knowing that the mega-wealthy will suffer?
Gonna have to say, had me in the first half there.
The answer is in the photo (well the reason I guess)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Price_Administration
Its so funny how the US despises socialism when its best economic time period had full on government controlled industry production and pricing requirements.
the US despises socialism
Took a good 40 years of far right propaganda, red scares, bigotry, and conspiracy mongering to get from FDR's New Deal to Reagan Economics.
American fascists poisoned the minds of their children and their grandchildren in order to reach this point.
American fascists have been used as tools by the rich to undo the gains of the new deal, and ultimately the gains of the Enlightenment to bring us back into some type of feudalism where owing money leads to Virtual slavery. And the entire system is fixed so you cannot avoid owing money to somebody.
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We hate socialism so much we bought part of Intel.
I actually support government/public shareholding. It’s a natural path to UBI that maps effective taxation directly to shareholder value (prohibiting tax loopholes) and reflects public backing of commercial entities proportionately with public stake.
Honestly it’s absurd that major stimulus initiatives proceed without requiring public equity in return for the funds. And that’s doubly true for corporations that would crater otherwise, since such a bailout would then result in a controlling stake. Public centralization via such an acquisition would be logical for any entity that’s “too big to fail.”
I’m sure this administration’s motivations are corrupt and we should be wary, but the precedent itself is progressive IMHO.
That’s facism
America was great when it was communist.
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i was so busy looking at the prices that my adhd brain didn’t register the opa part! thanks for the explanation
In addition to the WWII rations and OPA stuff that others have mentioned, there was a fair amount of general deflationary pressure during the Great Depression in the 1930s.
I haven't looked at what happened to sugar specifically.
Later on, after the Cuban Revolution I know we subsidized sugar partly out of spite for Cuba. That would not be at play here though.
I wonder why, its not like any major events happened around 1918 and 1945
nope, just the invisible hand of the free market!
I still find it crazy that this modern-quality video clip + set is from the 1930s
Inflation is caused by the Wizard of Oz.
I knew it.
I'm still mad that we measure inflation as the price of goods instead of the money supply and people have the audacity to say greed doesn't play a role.
can you explain what you mean
As a country prints more money, prices go up as a side effect. But inflation isn't a measure of the money supply, it's a measure of the price of goods. But people act like greed isn't a component even when we see things like companies skirting the law and colluding on prices through loop holes.
That's because inflation is the relevant factor for considering consumer well-being, and because prices can go up for any number of reasons.
For example, prices can go up due to a shortage. Suppose there is a corn blight, and 90% of corn fields are destroyed one year. We expect the price of corn to go up, then, because corn is now scarce. People can switch to other grains for any deficiencies in nutrition they have - but we still need to ask, what should we do with our remaining corn? How much should go to corn on the cobb, creamed corn, corn meal, corn oil, or doritos? Some people want to make their family's traditional corn bread for thanksgiving. Some people want to eat doritos more than anything else in life. Some people never eat corn anyway since it gives them a stomach ache. And some people exclusively eat corn instead of flour due to a gluten sensitivity that every doctor they've seen assures them isn't real, but their osteopath/shaman confirmed using magic crystals. If corn stays the same price as before the shortage, the first person to get to the store buys it all and hoards it. But using the signalling mechanism inherent in higher prices, everyone is persuaded to only buy as much corn as they really need. And at the same time, farmers who might be economically devistated by their poor yeilds are able to recoup their losses, and are reassured that if they can find a way to fight the blight, a market for their product will still exist.
As for greed - we don't talk about it because it is uninteresting. It is a constant. It would be like talking about the effect of gravity on crop yeilds - it isn't going to change, so it doesn't matter. What does matter is the anti-competitive practices you are describing, which should be controlled via strong regulations and regulatory bodies.
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it only took a market crash and two world wars.
Today that list would be 16 euros or something.
Yeah you're close. Ball park for Lidl where I do most of my shopping:
5lbs of sugar €5
Bread €1
2 quarts of milk €2.50
6 oranges €2.50
Oatmeal €1.80
Coffee €4
In the US bread is 3 even at aldi, 5 at big box stores at label.
That's crazy money. Name brand bread in a normal supermarket is around 3 USD here and I resent paying it.
Honestly I'd be buying a bread machine at those prices but we've a lot in the house so go through a lot of bread for school lunches etc.
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Man I wish i lived back in 1940 times and my husband beat me for having polio
Can we get something like that again, please?
BTW in 1918 1.34$ was around 31 bucks today, and in 1945 it was around 24.5 or so.
To be clear, you're requesting a great depression?
Can we just have the bit where speculators got wiped out?
Let's have more purchasing power WITHOUT a depression! BTW 1945 was just when WW2 was going to end, and during WW2 the US and Canadian economies were booming because they were far away from the fighting and everyone who wasn't fighting could get a job helping those that did. So people were working.
so it's 1/2 milk then?
Or how I like to call it, 1+2 milk
Unfortunately this comes about from a depression which is when most folks have zero of close enough to it to be zero. then suddenly bread goes for a few cents because most people cannot get enough cents together to buy bread and those with money don't need anymore bread they have plenty.
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