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Dear John,
When Kamala Harris unveiled her economic plan — including the first-ever national ban on price-gouging — the corporate media responded with a flood of hot takes about “Soviet-style price controls” and predictions of widespread food shortages.
What a load of nonsense.
The truth is that price controls are what we have NOW — except it’s the tiny handful of corporations that dominate the food industry fixing prices to maximize their profits.
Kamala Harris is proposing the opposite of price controls. She wants to prevent corporations from fixing prices by restoring competition. (More on how she plans to do that below.)
But with the corporate media doing such a miserable job explaining these basic economic concepts, voters aren’t getting the information they need to make an informed decision about which candidate’s platform is better for them.
For years, Inequality Media has been tracking inflation rates and producing videos explaining how corporate concentration is driving up prices — and we’re moving the needle on public opinion. But now, with just 67 days till the election, we must double down.
Will you donate $5 a month to help Inequality Media Civic Action educate the public and explain how Kamala Harris will lower prices and end corporate price-gouging?
Yes, Robert! I'll start a monthly donation.
No, I'm sorry, I can't chip in monthly.
Let me explain how a nationwide ban on price-gouging would actually work.
The first thing to know is that at least 38 states already have bans on price-gouging, including states like Texas, Florida, and Tennessee (hardly communist strongholds). Typically, these bans are triggered in response to some kind of emergency, like a hurricane, flood, or other natural disaster. Once activated, they prohibit price spikes over a certain threshold.
Imagine if Home Depot doubled the price of plywood just before a hurricane, or if Target started charging $20 for a bottle of water after a major flood caused the local drinking water source to become unusable. That’s what these laws ban. And even then, companies that raise prices can typically avoid punishment by showing that they raised prices in response to rising costs.
So all those hyperventilating opinion pieces about “communist” price controls? Hogwash.
What’s even more meaningful is Vice President Harris’s plan to crack down on mergers among major food producers and distributors. Right now, just four companies control most food industries, allowing them to coordinate prices instead of compete on the basis of lower prices.
By giving more resources to Lina Khan at the Federal Trade Commission and Jonathan Kanter, chief of the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department, a future Harris administration can restore competitiveness and thereby bring food prices down.
This is why corporations are attacking Harris’s economic plan. They don’t want to compete. They want to be able to keep prices high and never worry about losing customers to a lower-priced alternative.
Inequality Media was created to explain the complex economic issues that the corporate media can’t or won’t — and this is a key moment to do just that.
Will you donate $5 a month to help Inequality Media educate the public and explain how Kamala Harris will lower prices and end corporate price-gouging?
Yes, Robert! I'll start a monthly donation.
No, I'm sorry, I can't chip in monthly.
Thank you for joining with us,
Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action
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