Promises made

“…at the request of Joe Biden, I censored the Hunter Biden laptop computer story.” Mark Zuckerberg

The plans of Kamala Harris if elected president are hard to find. The media is not reporting this information. Since her nomination, she has been silent about her plans. I do remember, however, hearing some of Vice-President Harris’ promises made during the Democrat National Convention, held in Chicago earlier this month.

One promise the vice president made was to provide a $25,000 subsidy to first-time home buyers. Such a deal! This will be a gift. A gift from the taxpayers to up to a million home buyers. Such a deal! I remember when I purchased my first home. It was a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house. It was not new. My wife and I had to borrow $800 to have enough cash for the down payment. We found a way to purchase the house without government subsidy.

This sounds a lot like the student loan program, except the government in this case forgives the loan up front. This inflationary subsidy will only drive up the cost of housing.

That is what happened when the federal government began to provide grants and loans to college students. College tuition used to be measured in the low hundreds of dollars per semester. Now, due in large part because of the “free money” advanced and loaned to students the cost of a college education has skyrocketed. I first enrolled as a full-time student in the University of Iowa in 1957. My tuition for all of my classes was $110. My room and board for the entire semester in the university dormitory was $150. My books cost less than $60.

Another promise the vice president made during the convention was: “I will stop the grocery stores from ‘price gouging.’” The vice-president claims that the retail industry, especially your local supermarket, is overcharging you for everything you buy

I know a little about the supermarket industry. Years ago, I was a supermarket store manager. For several years I managed stores in Fairfield and in Monmouth, Illinois, and Galesburg, Illinois. The profit margin then, and also now, was and still is less than 2% of sales. As a percent of investment, the profit margin was less than 1%. That is if everything went well. Have you ever been in a supermarket when the refrigeration was broken? I have. It is not pretty; the loss can be enormous. There goes your profit this month and maybe the next several months.

Yes, prices at the supermarket have increased at a fantastic rate during the last three years. The reason is not because the store manager is raising prices to increase profits. When we examine the cause of these price increases, we find several underlying causes, none of which are related to price gouging.

In a recent column I described how toilet paper disappeared from grocery store shelves. This was caused when President Nixon placed price controls on many sectors of our economy. When this happened, the manufacturers of many goods (including toilet paper) just stopped production of items they could not sell for a profit. Take the accusation of price gouging with you to the bathroom and see what happens.

Beginning with the increasing cost of gas and diesel fuel three years ago there has been a constant increase in the cost of transportation and production of the goods sold in supermarkets and other retail outlets as well. This increase in cost has inevitably led to increased prices at the pump and in the stores.

Another promise I heard the vice president make during the Democrat convention was that she would control rents on living spaces. The end result of rent control will be the reduction of available rental property. Owners will not continue to make rental property available if they cannot pay their expenses and make a profit. The first thing to change will be the reduction of improvement, repair and upkeep of the rental property.

Our federal government has, by excessive spending, caused the supply of goods and services to dwindle and or increase in price. We find ourselves in another period of high inflation. This inflation makes everything more expensive. Inflation causes the reduction of quality of goods and services. Inflation steals our retirement funds from us. Inflation causes great suffering to many people who are unable to increase their income at the rate of inflation.

Inflation will also reduce our country’s ability to defend itself. Our military will be forced to reduce the procurement of equipment and armaments. Our military will be unable to maintain training at necessary levels.

Promises made will lift our expectations and increase our morale. When the promises are not kept?

Mike Lang, Chairman, Union County Republican Central Committee