Can someone who understands finance explain to me why the cost of living crisis is worse now, in 2025, than it was in the 2008 recession?

I think of it as a set of scales. On one side of the scale you have people and companies that want to make a profit, have the most customers and compete. On the other side are people and companies that only care about profit fast and absolutely nothing else. At some point in the past 10 years we shifted mostly to the side that only wants fast profit. There could be an argument that we live in a very uncertain world now with the threat of wars, actual wars and so on that people have this instinct to make as much as possible as fast as they can because who knows what tomorrow is going to bring. Look at the news this morning. That brings a real possibility of more conflict in the middle east which as we know will raise oil prices which in turn will hammer business if it involves any transportation. Most will just pass the costs on but that becomes more difficult if a cheaper alternative exists or what you sell isn't a necessity. Then there is the mathematics of profit. I sell 10 for 4 then I receive 40, I sell 5 for 8 then I receive 40. It's cost me half the costs for the same return. That's a very simple way of looking at it of course. Then you have stocks, shares and company valuations. I create company, company is successful so now I want to cash in and sell company or list it because I want fast profit. Then I bring in management consultant to make my company look as valuable as possible or I do it in house. The only part of the business I can cut costs is staff. It always goes the same way. A wage and hiring freeze even though the company is successful and making a healthy profit with doom and gloom prediction that will never happen but on the bright side you'll get pizza every once in a while to celebrate the wins. Job cutbacks and outsourcing. A few years of that and now the company is in a much better to place to be sold. This is mostly where wage stagnation comes from which is the other side of the cost of living crisis. Minimum wage. I support minimum wage but not the way it's now being used. This is now your default wage for jobs which should never have been in this range. Some of the jobs I worked in the past paid 28k to start with a couple of years experience or 24k with no experience. Now they are all minimum wage regardless of experience. In fact I see jobs asking for 8 years experience for minimum wage. It's madness and has basically brought everyone down. The only people to blame for that are the people that just accepted it and took the jobs in the first place. Greedy companies also know they can get rid of current staff and get someone else in on minimum wage. Added bonus is they no longer have to do wage rises they just let it go up with minimum wage which is nearly always less than inflation and that means people become poorer. Those are just a few reasons off the top of head. I can't see things improving. The only way out of this is regulation to stop profiteering for necessities such as rent etc... and making the minimum wage a proper living wage. No one and I mean absolutely no one should be working full time and struggling to live or having to use food banks.