The Other Side of Inflation
By Retiree Council Board Member Bruce Yernberg
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Inflation is not the bad news some would have you believe. As a retiree gaining seniority, I thought about what inflation has done for me and my family.
Inflation has given me some pretty good increases in my Social Security. Inflation has allowed the stock market to achieve high levels thereby firming up my union pension fund.
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Generally, my family has enjoyed record wage increases because of inflation. There are more job opportunities because of low unemployment. My family pays down their mortgages with cheaper dollars during periods of inflation. All who own homes are experiencing significant increases in their values. Seniors and their families lucky enough to have savings accounts and/or bank CDs can get interest rates in the 5% range; not bad.
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President Biden a few years ago saw to it that Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act which greatly reduced the price of medicines for all seniors. Best of all inflation promotes economic growth because more people spend money because more people are working. And that’s a good thing.
THE COST OF CORN
Another gripe I hear from seniors is the cost of food … the high cost of food. I happen to live in a town that transports corn by barge down the Mississippi to refineries that make corn syrup. Now corn syrup is used in almost all processed/canned foods. They add it so it tastes good. It has no nutritional value at the syrup stage. Some corn stays in Minnesota and is refined into ethanol --- subsidized by the Minnesota taxpayer.
Now corn is sold by the bushel. Ten years ago, corn was $5.00 a bushel. Today I checked and it was $4.55 a bushel with the proper moisture content. A bushel of corn is equal to 112 ears of corn. Each corn stalk grows one ear of corn … on rare occasions two. That comes out to 4 cents per ear to the farmer before expenses. Think of who gets the profit when an ear of eating corn retails for 50 to 75 cents or more. It ain’t the farmer!
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Now a bushel of wheat wholesales for $7.35 and you can make 42 loaves of bread out of a bushel (about 18 cents a loaf) or produce 45 boxes of Wheaties, total retail price $200 to $300 or more for the 45 boxes.
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During COVID-19 supply and demand upped food prices due to processing shutdowns. I understand that. The pandemic is over now but prices stayed up due to the greed of the “middle-men” who really are the multibillion-dollar robber barons who never seem to get enough tax reductions and labor concessions from the politicians they bankroll.
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The higher cost of food today is also due to the war in Ukraine (which is the “bread basket” of Europe and North Africa); and the drought in South America. Don’t forget that it took many months before one party in congress agreed to send support materials to Ukraine to help them fight off the Russian aggressors who are destroying Ukraine’s democracy along with the world’s most productive wheat fields.
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Next time at the grocery store think about whose fault the high prices really are. It is not the party we have been led to believe. Keep thinking about the high prices when you hit the polls.