Voting on Handouts | Economic Prism

Vice President Kamala Harris wants to help you, but you have to vote for her first. She has to be elected president in November before she can roll up her sleeves and get her hands dirty for the American people. Including you.

During her tenure, the cost of consumer goods and services has skyrocketed. In fact, consumer prices have risen more than 20% since January 2021. Food, rent, and electricity have risen even higher.

But her four years as President Joe Biden’s confidant are not important. The Biden economy depends on a big man. Not Harris. And now Harris has a plan. A multifaceted plan. That’s why she needs your vote.

If she is elected President of the United States, she promises to save you money. She says she will give you $25,000 to buy your first home. She also plans to give you $6,000 for every child you have.

Harris also wants to get into trouble with grocery suppliers. She says she’ll help you save money on your weekly grocery bill.

Specifically, Harris said she would enact a federal ban on food and grocery price increases. She said the reason food prices are so high is because of greedy corporations. The price increases have nothing to do with the rampant money printing, deficit spending or extreme dollar devaluation policies of the past four years.

It is unclear what a federal ban on raising the prices of food and groceries would entail, but we suspect it would involve lowering prices below the cost of production. Anyone with a basic understanding of arithmetic can see why such a proposal would be fraught with problems.

Nonetheless, for gullible voters, it’s a winning election strategy.

political opportunity

Price controls are a brilliant trick that every aspiring communist has tried over the years. It’s a good strategy for getting the votes of people struggling to make ends meet, but in practice it’s a disaster.

Price controls lead to scarcity and empty shelves. Always has. Always will. Kamunism will do the same.

Harris might have made a better argument if she had chosen a different market, say, the high-end handbag market, where there is a lot of fat to trim due to price inflation.

Besides, in 2024, won’t it be a right for both documented and undocumented Americans to own a luxury handbag?

By comparison, the grocery business is a notoriously terrible industry. Margins are only 1-1.5%. Competition is fierce. And most products, such as meat, dairy, and produce, have a very short shelf life.

If a grocery store can’t sell perishable food before it spoils, it should be thrown in the trash or donated to a food bank. Potential profits can wilt faster than rotten tomatoes, and that’s if the rising shipping and freight costs don’t eat up the profits first.

John D. Rockefeller, one of the most ruthless businessmen in American history, abandoned the agricultural business early in his career because he knew there was little he could dig into and exploit for his own benefit.

Still, Harris sees political opportunity in the grocery business. She knows that people these days are bitter about the sticker shock of grocery bills. They are reminded of it every week at the checkout counter. And she is determined to capitalize on people’s frustration to win votes.

Highway robbery

Harris has learned a valuable lesson from four years under Biden: Blaming corporate greed for rising prices wins politically. It provides a simple and effective answer to why consumer prices are so high.

One simple statement shifts blame away from the government’s failed policies, while simultaneously deflecting public hostility onto an easy target.

Harris’s logic is simple: firms are greedy because prices are rising. But if firms are greedy because prices are rising, isn’t the government greedy because prices are rising? Shouldn’t logic have both sides?

Specifically, if companies are greedy and raise prices, does that mean the United States Postal Service (USPS) is greedy too?

for example, Forever stamp When it was released in 2007, it was available for just 41 cents. In January of this year, the price of the Forever stamp increased from 66 cents to 68 cents. That’s a 3% increase and a 66% increase over the original price.

But the 68-cent Forever stamp wasn’t enough for the greedy price gougers at the USPS. Last month, the USPS raised the price of the Forever stamp again, this time by 5 cents, to 73 cents.

This year alone, the cost has increased by 10.6%, and since the permanent stamp was introduced 17 years ago, it has increased by 78%. This is robbery. Something must be done.

Voting on handouts

The USPS is currently losing money. It reported a loss of $6.5 billion in fiscal year 2023 and is projecting a loss of $6.3 billion in fiscal year 2024. But with Uncle Sam and taxpayer dollars helping to fund it, the USPS will continue to lose money forever.

Of course, these losses are covered by government deficits. And deficit spending, borrowing from the future to the present, is inflation. So the USPS is guaranteeing that the cost of permanent postage and other consumer goods will continue to rise.

According to Harris, it’s because corporations and, by her logic, the USPS are greedy. But is that the right answer?

A more sensible answer is that money is losing value. Why? Because the value of money is being systematically destroyed to finance government spending. Government spending is completely out of control. Targeting grocery stores and handing out relief supplies to get people to vote only accelerates the dollar’s decline.

Harris may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but her price control proposals aren’t pure stupidity.

The Soviet Socialists, the Communist Cubans, the Peronists, etc. have already conducted field research for decades. Their findings have been concluded without a doubt after much seriousness.

Central planning succeeds in slowing growth, increasing poverty, and stifling the imagination and creativity of its citizens. Before long, they are rummaging through garbage cans to stave off hunger.

Harris knows it. Her advisers know it. And frankly, they don’t care.

What they want is control.

As a result, Harris will promise the public donations in exchange for their votes. And dumbbell voters will believe it. Just wait and see.

[Editor’s note: It really is amazing how just a few simple contrary decisions can lead to life-changing wealth.  And right now, at this very moment, I’m preparing to make a contrary decision once again.  >> And I’d like to show you how you can too.]

thank you,

MN Gordon
For Economic Prism

Returning to the economic prism from hard landings