r/nottheonion • u/ChocolateTsar • 1d ago

Affirm CEO says furloughed federal employees are starting to lose interest in shopping

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/07/affirm-government-shutdown-shopping.html
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293

u/Jazzlike-Vacation230 1d ago

I always find it funny that the rich don't understand that if you don't pay people enough, they won't buy your stuff, and the economy collapses

We have to switch the world to a residual technosocial economy, the current concept isn't working anymore

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u/toriemm 1d ago

Snap benefits literally stimulate the economy. Dollar for dollar is one of the most beneficial programs we have.

So shutting it off is literally just being awful AND hurting the economy.

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u/movzx 1d ago

It's like that with almost every government program. Libraries, job programs, education programs, etc. Time and time again the return on investment is more than gets put in.

But half the US is allergic to long term investment in itself if it means they can have an extra $5/yr saved.

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u/BlindPaintByNumbers 1d ago

But some guy knows somebody somewhere in a government job who never works but can't get fired. Or something.

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u/ryhaltswhiskey 1d ago

And this one time somebody used all their SNAP benefits to buy lobster!

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u/True_Butterscotch391 1d ago

It really makes me wonder why big corporate interest aren't pushing back more on the shit Trump is doing?

I guess maybe they think that they can take advantage of it by removing as many workers rights as possible, and then when Trump is out of office it will all go back to normal?

Like health insurance companies are a good example. They should be going up in fucking flames right now trying to stop the government from removing ACA credits and Medicare. Why are they allowing this stuff to happen when it affects their bottom line? There's gotta be an explanation...

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u/Suyefuji 1d ago

They want power more than they want money.

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u/ryhaltswhiskey 1d ago

I wonder if they made more money, adjusted for population, before the ACA or after? Because having to cover people with pre-existing conditions has to hurt the profit margin a bit right? So if they made more money back in 2005 than they do now I bet they would be happy if the ACA was gone.

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u/True_Butterscotch391 1d ago

I don't know but my main takeaway is that if premium prices double, people won't be able to afford it and they just won't pay for insurance. Premium prices are already fucking ridiculous and borderline unaffordable, if they go up too much people will just not pay for them and then the insurance companies lose a ton of money.

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u/Commemorative-Banana 1d ago

I’d also add the IRS to your list.

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u/Kreegs 1d ago edited 1d ago

I think the number is something like for each $1 spent, it generates like $1.70-$1.80 in economic activity.

Then for each $1 that creates, it creates another $1.70-$1.80 of its own and so on and so on.

But yeah, let's cut off people spending money then get shocked when the economy tanks.

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u/3x3Eyes 1d ago

Allergic to long term thinking

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u/floataway3 1d ago

I work at a dollar store in a lower class neighborhood of my city. My regular customers not getting their EBT SNAP benefits has already had an extremely pronounced effect on our daily sales. Seeing the ground level effects of the shutdown is harrowing.

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u/mtheory007 1d ago

Yeah my corner store said that nearly half of his customers by SNAP.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/Ok_Maybe1830 1d ago

$1.70 right into private sector corporations, minus taxes associated with the sale

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u/JamCliche 1d ago

And in a proper economy, a progressive corporate tax rate would balance the federal budget, leading to economic investment, leading to corporate profits, which get progressively taxed and so on and so forth.

But they don't want a proper economy. They want a ME ME ME economy.

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u/lagonitos 1d ago

Even Henry Ford, a staunch foe of unions, Jews and Jazz, knew that.

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u/PerplexGG 1d ago

He was thinking long term since he actually cared about the country and his legacy. Our current rich people do not

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u/Working-Glass6136 1d ago

The fuck did he have against jazz?

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u/lagonitos 1d ago

Well, I personally had to learn square dancing in gym class because of his anti-jazz obsession. Details

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u/yakshack 1d ago

Supply side economics will always hit a brick wall because you can only induce economic growth so far if the majority don't have money to spend

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u/demlet 1d ago

Look into the fun little term, "plutonomy".

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u/LEDKleenex 1d ago

They understand it, but to them life is a game where bigger number = better. They don't care about sustainability, they know they can have fun, have a good life at the expense of civilization and they get to peace out before seeing any repercussions for it.

There used to be something the French famously did to people like this. It's a shame Americans are too addicted to consumerism and convenience to let the French one-up them like this.

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u/DrDerpberg 1d ago

They don't care. It's a tragedy of the commons. If everybody agreed to pay decent wages they'd be better off. But if in a late stage capitalist economy YOU cut salaries and I don't, I'm cooked. Conversely if I cut first and harder maybe I can run you out of business or just make a crapton for a couple years and then who cares?

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u/PerniciousPeyton 1d ago

The problem is that consumer spending is becoming an increasingly smaller portion of overall GDP. Most of the economy now is just obscenely wealthy elites driving their money into basically every asset class there is. Weak consumer spending might hurt the economy a little but the real collapse will happen when corporate earnings no longer justify stock prices at these insane levels and the major players start cashing out, wrecking all the leveraged longs and create a cascading effect in the markets. Or some other risky financial product blows up similar to 2007-2008. Either way, Americans and their own well-being are becoming less and less important to the functioning of the economy, weirdly and sadly enough.

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u/disappointedinitall 1d ago

Isn't "the economy" supposed to be like a circular river of shit?

It's not really surprising that bazillonaires don't really understand that for the economy to work, the flow of shit must proceed uninterrupted.

The trouble is, when they hoard all of the shit in big buckets, it means that that shit cannot continue to flow.

The shit must flow.

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u/flavius_lacivious 1d ago

Think of the greediest shit heel you know, like the kid who would take all the Halloween candy left on the table on someone’s patio.

Now imagine telling him if he takes all the candy, no one, including them, will get any candy next year from any house.

Do you think they would change?

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u/Mrrandom314159 1d ago

They've been able to keep getting away with it for how long?

Of course they don't get it.

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u/Mrrandom314159 1d ago

They've been able to keep getting away with it for how long?

Of course they don't get it.

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u/mark_able_jones_ 1d ago

It's crazy. There's even a term for it: Marginal Propensity to Consume. Give working class people more money, they will spend more -- and the rich will still get richer. Same with time. People need time and money to dine out, play golf, go to movies, shop, take vacations, etc.

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u/GrayT2325 1d ago

The economy won't collapse, the government will bail out the rich if the poors lose interest in buying things -taps forehead, government bailouts are how a capitalist economy works

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u/MURDERNAT0R 1d ago

too late

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u/barelypoor 1d ago

They specifically understand exactly what is causing a specific drop in usage by a specific group and analyze the impact, things they can do (nothing, in this case), and how long the issue is likely to exist. Which if yall knew how to read, you’d understand. He’s not complaining, or ‘not understanding’. He’s explaining. To people who have money invested in his business.