Was one of the intentions of the pandemic to justify the price-gouging of Americans?
And is one of the goals of the Iran war to justify more price-gouging? To increase monopoly power and impoverish the little guys?
Here are my 3 pieces of evidence:
I spent a month in Spain, Switzerland and Italy last December. I was very surprised to see that prices in restaurants and grocery stores had not bumped up by 50% or more the way they had in the US. They had only risen a little over that time.
A friend suggested I shop at Market Basket because prices were considerably lower than at the other local chain supermarkets (Hannaford and Shaws/Star Market). Market Basket is a chain with stores located near my new home. I was shocked—shocked—to find that the organic Firehook crackers I normally paid $7.99 for were $5.99 there. The Finlandia swiss cheese I normally paid $8.99-$9.99/lb was $6.99/lb there. This told me that the other groceries were making phenomenal profits since Market Basket was doing well with significantly lower prices. (And all 3 were within a mile of each other, on the same state highway.)
Farmers are facing the same problem: the monopolies that serve them are making huge profits while bankrupting the small guys—and as their small farms are sold off, the larger industrial farms they become part of are even more likely to use the inputs that only the agricultural monopolies can provide.
The images at the bottom show that corn growers lost money on each acre grown since 2023. But they continue growing corn because the taxpayer compensates them for the loss through crop insurance.
Meanwhile, the US is importing $50 Billion dollars of food this year. What are we exporting? Ethanol made from corn! The corn is not feeding us or our livestock but being sold outside the country.
Cattle could be grazing on the land where that money-losing corn is growing, if we lived in a sensible world with sensible financial incentives. Instead, beef prices are at record highs, while we have a cockeyed set of incentives that drive farmers off the land. And farmers only get 11.8 cents of every food dollar spent, according to the USDA.
The following three images come from this article, based on USDA data:
https://www.agweb.com/news/policy/ag-economy/farm-economys-profitability-problem-can-it-be-fixed
Over the years, I have been refining my diet by eliminating, eliminating and eliminating many foods with healthy results. i have no health issues, take no drugs, and my weight is stable; better than normal....I feel better at 92 than I did in my thirties, when I was fat and lethargic. I buy almost NO processed foods, except some Native Forest Canned Light Coconut Milk and some So Delicious Coconut Milk, which I use in my coffee. This summer I have been eating lots of fruit from our trees, bananas from the market, and some eggs from our own chickens; plus some spinach a few times weekly. I also have been using some Cacao Bliss, which many are promoting on the Internet now with my coconut milk and sweetened with some Kal Stevia. My energy has never been better. I am out at 6:30 in the morning doing 90 minutes of non-stop walking (4-1/2 miles). My food bill is still high, because of the cost of the chickens. They are the most expensive organic eggs in the world.
Meryl, this is what I’ve called “the great robbery,” that’s what’s really happening. They’re just calling it inflation or tarrifs or anything else, but it’s robbery: https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/the-ten-year-heist-a-complete-guide