D&D 5E Price Increase on D&D & MtG coming

[doctorbadwolf]

I don’t care what the abstract value of the currency is, it doesn’t actually “cost less” if I’m not getting paid more.

Right. While I do think that the price of books has stayed the same for longer than I would have expected, the above is also true.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Not arguing with any of that, but that doesn't stop inflation from eating away the value of the dollar over time. Sooner or later, that needs to be accounted for.

Sure, but @Charlaquin is right that the accounting should have been “not giving big raises to already wealthy executives” before “raising prices”.

 

[Parmandur]

Sure, but @Charlaquin is right that the accounting should have been “not giving big raises to already wealthy executives” before “raising prices”.

Who said otherwise? And the companies in question resisted raising prices for years while their costs rose. But prices cannot stay flat forever while costs rise.

 

[The-Magic-Sword]

It depends. A privately owned corporation can do whatever it likes, including not passing on these increases to you and making less money. A publicly traded corporation cannot do that. They have a fiduciary duty to their stockholders to maximize profits and can be sued by said stockholders if they breach that duty.

I suspect that the stockholders would lose that suit handily if it was demonstrated in court that the wage increases were specifically keeping up with inflation, and employees brought in to testify that they wouldn't work for less money. Otherwise a suit would happen and the company would lose any time anyone was paid more than minimum wage. The stockholders have to affirmatively prove that the actions of the company represented a direct, open and shut, loss in profits in such a way that the company wouldn't even have plausible deniability that the move could be considered a good decision in the long term.

The company could easily argue that their internal projections demonstrate that raising prices would result in unacceptable long term damage to the value of the brand, that they need to increase the pay of employees to keep up with cost of living in the area to which they commute from in order to retain their staff, or even that the move would stimulate sales through good PR by ensuring customers feel the product was being produced ethically, with recent social media outcries and protests used as evidence that this qualifies as a real consumer demand.

 

[Charlaquin]

Not arguing with any of that, but that doesn't stop inflation from eating away the value of the dollar over time. Sooner or later, that needs to be accounted for.

For sure! Inflation is definitely a thing, and it definitely affects some industries more than others. My point is just that I don’t think “keeping up with inflation” is a good argument for price increases in industries where profits are at all-time highs and executives are among the world’s most overpaid relative to their employees.

 

[Charlaquin]

It depends. A privately owned corporation can do whatever it likes, including not passing on these increases to you and making less money. A publicly traded corporation cannot do that. They have a fiduciary duty to their stockholders to maximize profits and can be sued by said stockholders if they breach that duty.

Again, this is how it is; I’m arguing for how I believe it ought to be.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Who said otherwise? And the companies in question resisted raising prices for years while their costs rose. But prices cannot stay flat forever while costs rise.

Who...said...that anyone had said otherwise?

But those same companies gave raises and bonuses to their executives in that same time. If rising cost was putting pressure on the bottom line, executive salaries are where that tension should have been released, not consumer cost.

 

[Parmandur]

Who...said...that anyone had said otherwise?

But those same companies gave raises and bonuses to their executives in that same time. If rising cost was putting pressure on the bottom line, executive salaries are where that tension should have been released, not consumer cost.

I dunnp.hkw.wages are at WotC, but they have massively been hiring people, at least. As I said earlier, I'm more concerned about the rising cost of milk per week than my luxury purchase being a few dollars per year more.

 

[Parmandur]

For sure! Inflation is definitely a thing, and it definitely affects some industries more than others. My point is just that I don’t think “keeping up with inflation” is a good argument for price increases in industries where profits are at all-time highs and executives are among the world’s most overpaid relative to their employees.

It is eventually a sufficient argument, after years of costs to consumer being deflated and everything shrinks

 

[Charlaquin]

It is eventually a sufficient argument, after years of costs to consumer being deflated and everything shrinks

Not while there’s such severe income inequality within the company. If the company can afford to give the execs multi-million dollar bonuses, it can afford to cover increasing operating costs without passing those costs onto the workforce or the consumers. If the company is making more money than it’s ever made at the current price, they don’t need to increase prices to remain profitable. Infinite growth is inherently unsustainable.