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Our politicians love to say they’re raising taxes on the rich, on large corporations, and “those who can afford it.” Sounds Nice.
If we raise taxes, they say we’ll be able to have a better infrastructure, greater aid to the poor, and free college tuition.
In eight months of the new administration, we have begun to see promises of greater incentives, more freebies, and greater aid in housing, healthcare, and education for the hundreds of thousands crossing our borders.
We have also seen commodity shortages which are raising production costs for big corporations like Coca Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, and Hershey’s Chocolate. The predictable result is that the big corporations do not seem to be suffering. Most of the consumer goods industries have not reduced their earnings, and the majority have increased their profits.
How do these large companies deal with soaring costs of raw materials? Simple. They increase prices to offset “inflation.” Food and beverage companies like Kraft-Heinz, ConAgra Brands, Tyson Foods, Coca-Cola and Hershey’s have actually benefited from recent price hikes. In addition, scarcities of available parts are affecting prices, like the world-wide shortage on computer chips driving up costs of laptops and printers.
While you and I pay one more dollar per gallon of gas (as compared to this time last year), pay more inflated prices for the meat we barbecue or the produce that we consume, we are being consoled by big business and politicians. The central bank is telling us that this inflation will prove to be “transitory.” And, Noel Wallace, CEO of Colgate-Palmolive Company tells us that we must be “courageous and bold” to face current conditions.
Like many of you who remain skeptical, I doubt that our current politicians will promptly act to reverse this inflation.
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