Kamala to fix food prices. Yay!

[Tuur]

I agree. I think food prices will soar if she becomes President.

I think she's likely to become president. If she imposes price controls, I expect shortages. If you can't afford to sell your crops, you won't plant them. Have seen people who let corn die in the field because the prices dropped and irrigation would just increase their loss.

When I learned of this today, started thinking about clearing the old garden spot. I let it lay fallow after the motor on the tiller developed problems. With winter coming, I could start preparing the ground and have it ready for planting by spring.

 

[Tuur]

Why is increasing competition a bad idea?

One example:

Concentration in Meatpacking​

Meatpacking industries underwent striking change over the past 40 years. In 1980, the four largest beef packers accounted for 36 percent of all purchases of steers and heifers, while the four largest pork packers (a different group of firms) accounted for 34 percent of all purchases of market hogs. By 1995, the largest four firms accounted for 81 percent of steer and heifer purchases. Concentration in hogs grew more slowly, but by 2019 the four largest packers accounted for 67 percent of all hog purchases. This concentration of production among fewer packers means there are fewer firms buying livestock.

--> In most parts of the country, ranchers and farmers now have two to four buyers for their cattle or hogs.

Concentration in U.S. Meatpacking Industry and How It Affects Competition and Cattle Prices | Economic Research Service

The meatpacking industry is highly concentrated, with large plants and few firms. Larger plants reduce processing costs and wholesale meat prices, but having fewer firms allows packers to reduce prices paid for livestock. Those tradeoffs—efficiency versus market power—have reemerged in policy...

www.ers.usda.gov

I've seen stockyards close with nothing to replace them. Without a place to sell, farmers ceased raising some livestock. Hog operations used to be common around here. Now the only hogs are those in the wild.

You can hear arguments/speculations why those stock markets closed. You might hear that the rest of the country couldn't compete with the Midwest when it comes to raising hogs. Maybe that's true. I don't know. I do know that maybe all but two of those stockyards bought more than just hogs, and for whatever reason didn't continue buying cattle.

 

[Laodicean60]

Why is increasing competition a bad idea?

Nothing! I think competition is what we need and I think that is a good EO but not sure how. I just watched this video and it talks about price fixing but the scary part is how technology will replace many jobs.

 

[Gregory Thompson]

I can't see how it would be logically possible to get food prices down since a lot of it is imported.

What will be done? Only produce domestically?

 

[wing2000]

Nothing! I think competition is what we need and I think that is a good EO but not sure how. I just watched this video and it talks about price fixing but the scary part is how technology will replace many jobs.

...automation supported by consumers who value "convenience" and "price" over quality. Look what Amazon has down to "main street" over the past decade(s). We (consumers) need to reflect on our purchasing decisions....who are we supporting? The mega coporation using automation to deliver a product to my front door in hours?

 

[Laodicean60]

...automation supported by consumers who value "convenience" and "price" over quality. Look what Amazon has down to "main street" over the past decade(s). We (consumers) need to reflect on our purchasing decisions....who are we supporting? The mega coporation using automation to deliver a product to my front door in hours?

I agree but it's hard not to be lazy lol. I got hooked on Amazon because of Covid. In Dallas, there are a couple of Walmarts that deliver by drone.

 

[BCP1928]

I can't see how it would be logically possible to get food prices down since a lot of it is imported.

What will be done? Only produce domestically?

The problem is not that foodstuffs are imported, but that they are imported by a few large corporations who can control prices.

 

[Gregory Thompson]

The problem is not that foodstuffs are imported, but that they are imported by a few large corporations who can control prices.

The food prices skyrocketed after russia's war with ukraine started.

Some countries couldn't get food, so there appears to also be a factor of buying food from markets at higher prices to secure the goods.

 

[BCP1928]

The food prices skyrocketed after russia's war with ukraine started.

Some countries couldn't get food, so there appears to also be a factor of buying food from markets at higher prices to secure the goods.

They did indeed. Ukraine was a breadbasket, supplying more than 20% of the world's grain exports. That's why Putin wants it.

 

[Tuur]

The problem is not that foodstuffs are imported, but that they are imported by a few large corporations who can control prices.

I doubt the corn field I saw being combined today was imported. The local peanuts look good this year. Cotton is so-so. Haven't seen any soybeans.

Now, if you want all US food imported, capping food prices is a good way to do it. If you can't pay for your fuel, fertilizer, equipment, seed, and time, then there's no point growing food. That means buying food from places where it's not as expensive to grow it, and maybe not have the agricultural regulations on herbicides and pesticides as the US does and doesn't have much in the way of inspections.

 

[BCP1928]

I doubt the corn field I saw being combined today was imported. The local peanuts look good this year. Cotton is so-so. Haven't seen any soybeans.

Now, if you want all US food imported, capping food prices is a good way to do it. If you can't pay for your fuel, fertilizer, equipment, seed, and time, then there's no point growing food. That means buying food from places where it's not as expensive to grow it, and maybe not have the agricultural regulations on herbicides and pesticides as the US does and doesn't have much in the way of inspections.

Why would we want all US food imported?

 

[AlexB23]

Kamala Harris to Announce Soviet-Style Price Controls on Food Under Guise of ‘Gouging Ban’
Kamala Harris to Announce Soviet-Style Price Controls on Food Under Guise of 'Gouging Ban'

I’m so happy.

Three words on fixing food prices: Shop at Aldi.

Image is not from the Aldi in my city.

 

[Tuur]

...automation supported by consumers who value "convenience" and "price" over quality. Look what Amazon has down to "main street" over the past decade(s). We (consumers) need to reflect on our purchasing decisions....who are we supporting? The mega coporation using automation to deliver a product to my front door in hours?

Long before Amazon, there was Sears & Roebuck and Montgomery Ward. Seem to recall that mail order made up a surprising amount of US commerce in the 1960s. Small stores were fading before the Word Wide Web, and apparently found it hard to compete with discount retail and bulk buying.

What we got from mail order (before Sears tried to be pretentious) was sometimes cheaper; most of the time what we couldn't find locally. Last week I bought a mundane filter online simply because there are none available locally. I'll have to buy another mundane item online for the same reason. It's exactly what we used to do with mail order.

 

[Tuur]

Why would we want all US food imported?

I doubt the Soviets wanted to buy wheat from the US, but thanks to their masterful centralized planners, that's what they ended up having to do. If the US is shortsighted enough to go with price controls (and I think the US is), that's what's going to happen on a larger scale than we have now.

 

[variant]

Why is increasing competition a bad idea?

One example:

Concentration in Meatpacking​

Meatpacking industries underwent striking change over the past 40 years. In 1980, the four largest beef packers accounted for 36 percent of all purchases of steers and heifers, while the four largest pork packers (a different group of firms) accounted for 34 percent of all purchases of market hogs. By 1995, the largest four firms accounted for 81 percent of steer and heifer purchases. Concentration in hogs grew more slowly, but by 2019 the four largest packers accounted for 67 percent of all hog purchases. This concentration of production among fewer packers means there are fewer firms buying livestock.

--> In most parts of the country, ranchers and farmers now have two to four buyers for their cattle or hogs.

Concentration in U.S. Meatpacking Industry and How It Affects Competition and Cattle Prices | Economic Research Service

The meatpacking industry is highly concentrated, with large plants and few firms. Larger plants reduce processing costs and wholesale meat prices, but having fewer firms allows packers to reduce prices paid for livestock. Those tradeoffs—efficiency versus market power—have reemerged in policy...

www.ers.usda.gov

Right now small ranchers are going out of business at a record pace while beef prices at the grocery store also hit a record.

It shouldn't be possible under a free market system. And, isn't, because our system isn't free it's owned by a small set of businesses that sits at the choke point of the meat processors and feedlots and reaps all the benefits while making the whole system more inefficient.

 

[Ana the Ist]

Kamala Harris to Announce Soviet-Style Price Controls on Food Under Guise of ‘Gouging Ban’
Kamala Harris to Announce Soviet-Style Price Controls on Food Under Guise of 'Gouging Ban'

I’m so happy.

Wow....is she resurrecting Joseph Stalin to run the State Department?

 

[Ana the Ist]

Right now small ranchers are going out of business at a record pace while beef prices at the grocery store also hit a record.

It shouldn't be possible under a free market system. And, isn't, because our system isn't free it's owned by a small set of businesses that sits at the choke point of the meat processors and feedlots and reaps all the benefits while making the whole system more inefficient.

Price fixing essentials like food doesn't seem to have a good track record.

 

[Ana the Ist]

Free Market Capitalism is COMMUNISM!!!

Hilarious.

Are the Democrats for free market capitalism? Or socialism?

Lasse faire capitalism would be to stop subsidizing agricultural sectors entirely.

Socialism would be price fixing.

 

[Ana the Ist]

Here's a press release from March.

President Biden Is Taking Action to Lower Costs for Families and Fight Corporate Rip-Offs

President Biden is fighting to lower costs for American consumers

Back in March many people still thought Biden was running his administration.

Now we know otherwise.

 

[Ana the Ist]

She wants to promote more competition among meat producers and more scrutiny over mergers of large food companies.

If that were true....she could break up the meat producers.

Price fixes are dangerous. They don't respond to supply or demand in real time....or at all.

It would cause an effect like how when everyone had to stand in line to buy tp during the pandemic.

Initial low prices will get bought out.

Then there's no meat.