Wake Up and VOTE!

Photo by J.E. Hargate

Early in my career in the chemical distribution biz in the late seventies, I recall well that the industry types I hung out with positively LOVED the inflationary times.

Because any idiot could raise prices faster than costs were going up and make a killing on aged inventory. Getting carte blanche to raise prices willy-nilly because everyone was freaking out about inflation created a price raising feeding frenzy. The profit sharing bonuses that resulted were eye popping.

And who paid these lavish bonuses? Well, you did, of course. Just like you are paying them right now.

Anyone with a brain and any business experience at all knows exactly who is to blame for the spiraling inflation we are seeing globally, and of course in this country. And it is certainly not your current President or the Democratic Party. That idea is laughably absurd.

The unrelenting nature of the current inflationary trend is fueled and exacerbated by rapacious opportunists making a killing at your expense, as well as free market zealots that refuse to regulate anything that makes business a gargantuan pile of money.

So, today’s corporate profits have never been so robust. Because, let’s just face it: greed is still good for some of us, but very bad for most of us.

“It’s the economy, stupid.” That’s what political campaign advisor and pundit James Carville said decades ago, and he was right. Short term, reactionary, pocketbook-centric thinking drives the emotions of way too many American voters, regardless of the economic causes or effects that our government can influence. It’s all about gas and food prices and the value of your 401(k,) if you’re privileged enough to even have one.

All of which today have been impacted by a global pandemic and the resultant global supply chain disruption and global corporations grabbing lustily at the opportunity that presents itself in a crisis they prolong by raising prices at will. Never mind that the national deficit is being brought down steadily, manufacturing is coming back to the U.S. and we have record employment. Many aspects of the economy are doing just fine, as it happens.

It will be a real shame then if any American voters go to the polls in a few weeks and vote angrily for liars, fact-deniers, insurrectionists, racists, misogynists, fascists and outright kooks because they are upset that global forces outside of the control of our government have hit them in the pocketbook.

If that happens, it will be very sad, indeed, and potentially disastrous to our democracy.