A friend of mine passed the following meme along to me…and I replied…so thought I would add my reply as a blog entry.

In short…nonsense. The president has ZERO control over all those. However, Pres. Biden’s actions have improved the economy, so the stock market (which is where 401k plans are invested) to triple from the debacle of the previous administration.

If property taxes rise, it is because LOCAL GOVERNMENTS increase them…bitch at your county’s executive and the legislators. The Federal government has NOTHING to do with local taxes.

If rents go up, it is because housing is limited…and capitalism states that a product in short supply is more expensive. Landlords are the ones that control this…not the government.

Fuel prices are set by the oil industry…again…NOT the government. It is interesting to note that oil companies are reported the highest profits in their entire history…Wonder why THAT is? As a matter of fact the only influence the Federal Government can exert on fuel prices is to lower them by releasing some of the National Reserve. Pres. Biden did exactly this in 2021, when prices were skyrocketing because the oil industry was trying to recoup the drop in profits during 2020 when so little fuel was being used, thanks to the Pandemic.

• a) The previous administration had such draconian policies for dealing with undocumented workers, it caused a large drop in the numbers entering the country. THIS meant that many farmers had NO ONE to pick their crops…leading to thousands of acres of produce rotting in the field. Amazing that no White guys traveled to the farming states to fill the gap! What about all those complaints about undocumented workers taking jobs from Americans?
• b) The end result of item a)? There was far less produce available for the stores to sell….Remember how capitalism deals with this? Prices go up.
• c) The cost of running the farms and transporting produce to market jumped because of the cost of fuel going up. It takes a HUGE amount of Diesel to get crops into the ground, harvest them, process them for shipping, and transport them to the vendors. d) The fact is that the produce that arrives in the store passes through the hands of several vendors on the way to the store. Each of those vendors pays the bill presented by their source, and then passes that cost along to the next level…adding a percentage to that amount to cover their expenses and make some profit. Again, the cost of groceries is not controlled by the Government.

The above issues also apply to cattle and poultry…but add these factors:

• a) The cost of cattle feed has jumped in the past few years. For example, the 1000 lib hay rolls my guy gets off my property ran about $15/each before the pandemic. Now, The price varies between $30 and $70.
• b) Because of these cost increases, a few years ago a lot of ranchers cut their number of cattle by significant amounts. Fewer cows…Price goes up. As an example, a rancher near me is advertising bulk meat sales. In 2014, a side of beef (half of a cow) cost around $300. Today, that same side runs around $2000.
• c) The number of chickens has taken a big hit over the past 8 years or so, because of a nasty strain of bird flu that is so deadly and contagious that some chicken farmers have had to destroy their entire flock…and some of those culls took out 230,000 chickens. Also, of course, chicken feed has had the same hits that cattle feed has taken.
• d) Thanks to mad cow disease that flared up in America, not only were many cattle destroyed, but, a lot of cattle farmers made a big chunk of their income from exporting beef. These exports nearly stopped because so many countries were nervous about their herds being infected, and contaminated beef getting into the food chain…
• An overall factor is climate change, also. The increase in average temperatures, and changes in weather patterns have cause serious drought conditions throughout much of the South and Midwest. This increases the demand for feed, and water to be trucked in from places that can still produce it.

All these factors work to push up the costs of not only food, but utilities and other services.

I wish I had some solutions for these problems, but, alas, there are no easy answers. However, I am quite sure that allowing Right-Wingers to keep power in government is certain to ensure that the situation is not going to improve.

God help us all! Be safe. Wear your mask (covid is still with us), social distance and wash your hands.

BeeManDave