In the old Soviet Union, whenever its economy took an especially bad turn, government apparatchiks often responded by pinning the blame on vague bogeymen. They’d blame the scarcity of goods and high costs of living on dark and unseen forces, claiming various operatives and traitors had conspired to sabotage an otherwise perfectly managed society.
It’s not the party’s fault food is scarce. It’s not the party’s fault that whatever goods are available are prohibitively expensive. It’s not the ruling party’s fault basic comforts and services are available only to connected government functionaries.
No, your suffering is the fault of saboteurs, capitalists, and Western propaganda.
Anything to avoid admitting the people with their hands on the levers of the economy may also be responsible for the misfortunes of the economy.
Anyway, Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts this week blamed the unusually high cost of turkeys this year on a sinister plot by Big Poultry.
“Lack of competition in the poultry industry is allowing these massive companies to squeeze both American consumers and farmers to fuel record corporate profits and payouts to shareholders,” Warren said this week in a statement.
She added, “When companies have monopoly power as massive suppliers, they can jack up prices of the goods they sell. And when those same companies have complete or substantial market power as large employers or buyers of inputs, also known as monopsony power, they can suppress their own costs for those inputs, including workers’ wages. This is the worst of all worlds, where wages are held back while prices are jacked up.”
Not content simply to accuse Big Poultry of a holiday-timed conspiracy to line its pockets at the expense of consumers, the senator also called for a criminal investigation of the alleged turkey-gouge plot.
“Given the apparent connection between rising poultry prices for consumers and the history of anti-competitive practices in the poultry industry,” the senator said, “I ask that [the Department of Justice] open a broad investigation into the impact of price fixing, wage fixing, and consolidation in the poultry industry on consumers and farmers.”
It’s worth mentioning the Biden White House argued this week the increase in the cost of poultry is more or less negligible, “about $1 more for a 20-pound bird.”
It’s also worth mentioning U.S. inflation in October hit a three-decade high of 6.2%, affecting the price of everything from groceries to utilities to appliances. More specifically, the consumer price index increased by 0.9% last month, compared to its increase of 0.4% in September and 0.3% in August. This is the fastest rate of increase in 31 years. In other words, Warren would have us believe both that Big Poultry has been slowly gouging customers and that the sharp increase this year happened independent of inflation.
Earlier this year, Warren also blamed the high cost of gasoline on a sinister plot by Big Oil.
“We know exactly who the oil companies — what the oil companies pay attention to,” she said during an appearance on MSNBC. “What is their No. 1 priority? Profits. And so, think about it this way, if … this were just ordinary inflation, we might see prices go up.”
She added, “But prices at the pump have gone up why? Well, let me give you a hint: Chevron, Exxon have doubled their profits. This isn’t about inflation. This is about price gouging for these guys. … We’ve got to pay attention to the fact that folks like the oil companies say, I think it’s just another opportunity to make profits and we need to call them out on that.”
Never mind the Biden administration’s energy and trade policies and the concurrent leaps and bounds we’ve seen this year both in inflation and the consumer price index. No, the squeeze you’re feeling at the pump is because of a corporation. And the expensive turkey you bought this year? Also a corporation.
At this trajectory, it won’t be long before Warren blames an economic crisis on “rootless cosmopolitans.”
