> That hasn’t stopped some of these people from trying to blame corporations for inflation. Senator Elizabeth Warren has insisted that big businesses—ranging from grocery chains to private equity firms—have made inflation worse by “jacking up prices.” President Biden’s spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, has referred to “the greed of meat conglomerates.”
> If greedy corporations could “jack up” prices whenever they wanted to, then they would do it all the time, over and over. But they don’t. That’s because, well, consumers have choices, and when things get too expensive, they stop buying those things. Suggesting otherwise is silly.
> The inverse of this paper thin argument for “corporate greed” suggests that, until recently, corporations were not greedy, that, since the early 1980s, when inflation was really bad, corporations haven’t been all that keen on making that much money. Perhaps the senior senator from Massachusetts should spend a little more time in the private sector.
In fact, this can and does happen all the time. We have anti-trust legislation to prevent companies from working together to fix prices, but sometimes it happens anyways, and lawsuits get filed and companies get fined. If there haven't been any prominent legal cases lately it's not necessarily an indication that price fixing has gone away; it may just be that enforcement is lax, or that the companies have found ways to collude that aren't technically illegal or aren't flagrant enough to provoke enforcement, or that one company has simply bought most or all of its competitors.
Also, it's noteworthy that the healthcare industry is explicitly exempted from U.S. antitrust laws.
Bari Weiss doesn’t seem to know basic economics. Are all consumer goods perfectly competitive markets? No. Is demand for consumer goods highly inelastic? Yes. Does the author account for collusion? No.
One can’t just say that consumers should find cheaper alternatives. Reality is not so simple. But after reading far too much of Bari Weiss’ writing, it seems clear that all she ever offers is surface level takes.
> If greedy corporations could “jack up” prices whenever they wanted to, then they would do it all the time, over and over. But they don’t. That’s because, well, consumers have choices, and when things get too expensive, they stop buying those things. Suggesting otherwise is silly.
> The inverse of this paper thin argument for “corporate greed” suggests that, until recently, corporations were not greedy, that, since the early 1980s, when inflation was really bad, corporations haven’t been all that keen on making that much money. Perhaps the senior senator from Massachusetts should spend a little more time in the private sector.
In fact, this can and does happen all the time. We have anti-trust legislation to prevent companies from working together to fix prices, but sometimes it happens anyways, and lawsuits get filed and companies get fined. If there haven't been any prominent legal cases lately it's not necessarily an indication that price fixing has gone away; it may just be that enforcement is lax, or that the companies have found ways to collude that aren't technically illegal or aren't flagrant enough to provoke enforcement, or that one company has simply bought most or all of its competitors.
Also, it's noteworthy that the healthcare industry is explicitly exempted from U.S. antitrust laws.