Boy are you going to be shocked when Walmart, target, Amazon brag about the X% income increase when that happens and while prices continue to rise.

Zero, zero companies will discount the sales price when the rewards cards are gone.

There is a strong argument that discontinuing rewards cards actually helps the extremely wealthy by taking from the middle class and giving it to the Uber rich shareholders and big business owners.

Returning merchandise should be illegal and allowing returns is basically a privately levied tax on those who make good purchase decisions and a subsidy to the impulse buyer.

I see this sentiment sometimes, but I disagree. I have excellent credit score and several good rewards cards, despite never spending more than $10k/yr through them. I'd say someone making $10k/yr is dirt poor and yet they too can have a good rewards card.

> privately levied tax on the poor and a subsidy to the wealthy

That's 2/3s of capitalism. Hold enough MA and V -- directly or through just having enough net worth in an index -- and you'll start to see this as a feature, not a bug.