trod123
13 hours ago
Given the marketshare and their size they should go after Tyson for more than just price fixing. Food Security is a strategic national security issue.
According to a grocery store worker near me, more recently Tyson started entering into agreements for buying back rotten meat at fixed (but lowered) prices so the stores wouldn't have to discount the meat leading up to expiration. This was in response to asking about why the meat hasn't been going on sale at all.
Many desperate low-income people wait for the sales, then do a bunch of cooking. When the sales never happen they have to get food somehow. Economically the demand doesn't change, but because they have artificially constrained and reduced supply, they are making record profits very stupidly.
Food Security historically has been one of the top few driving forces in revolution.
Tyson needs to be broken up just like all other monopolies. Safeguarding national security is more important. The people involved in those decisions need to go to jail. No fine will be big enough.
If a company cooperates with others to manipulate a sale price, its price fixing. Be it algorithm, or other change in input, cost, or choice.
FireBeyond
11 hours ago
> Given the marketshare and their size they should go after Tyson for more than just price fixing.
Several years ago, there was a big immigration raid on a bunch of Tyson Chicken facilities.
They found about 900 undocumented workers.
Many of them gave evidence to officials, including written instructions from Tyson that advised them how to fill out employment, banking, taxation paperwork if they "didn't have documentation" and how to stay under the radar, i.e. Tyson didn't just know they might have undocumented workers, they were facilitating and actively enabling it.
In press conferences, when journalists asked "Are there any plans to investigate the company or issue fines or charges?", the response? "We are not considering that at this time." (And they never did.)
What it ended up looking like was that Tyson had been getting in some trouble, getting bad press for OSHA safety issues and perhaps had decided their undocumented workers were getting a little too angry about poor safety standards, making waves.
It would be entirely unsurprising to me if Tyson made a sweetheart deal with ICE that said "Hey, if you come to these plants, you'll get to make this big stink about undocumented workers" (and this was during the Trump administration), "but in return, can you leave us out of it?", very much shades of "Won't someone rid me of these meddlesome workers?"
meiraleal
8 hours ago
Trumpists might complain a lot about immigration but it is the basis of US economic strength. If the US was having the same demographics issues as Europe it would have stagnated long ago. The government knows this and don't go after Tyson and the likes because it that would be a shoot in the foot. China has 1.5bi people, the US needs to get to at least 500mil fast.
FireBeyond
8 hours ago
> China has 1.5bi people, the US needs to get to at least 500mil fast.
That needs a sea change that frankly will not happen for the forseeable future.
We don't have the infrastructure to support that population. And what infrastructure we do have is pitifully run down. Governments hate investing in it - our road quality is some of the worst in the developed world (I'm in an affluent area and the amount of potholes here would have people rioting, in places overseas I've lived, for one tiny little example. Not to mention rolling blackouts in many major centers when weather exceeds seasonal norms.