Greed driven by lack of empathy for consumers

Last year’s average inflation rate was 4.1%, which, thankfully, isn’t as steep as the 8% annual inflation rate that capped off 2022 or the 4.7% rate at the end of 2021. But since then, costs have only climbed, as demonstrated by the consumer price index, a frequently cited measure of buying power.

The CPI measures the price fluctuations of consumer goods and services. According to the CPI, inflation was higher – 4.06% in 2023 and 9.59% in 2022.

Oddly enough, the CPI doesn’t typically include food or energy. I hate to remind the pencil pushers in Washington, D.C., but those numbers significantly impact a family’s budget. That’s why the only numbers that matter to me are what’s on the bottom of the receipt, and that number is infuriating.

Those numbers mean prices are higher, and we have fewer dollars to spend.

I’m sick of companies taking advantage of hard-working people, especially during difficult financial times. The more the dollar shrinks, the more big business works to squeeze every dollar from a family’s budget.

Just two years ago, you could get a two-liter bottle of soda at the grocery store for about $1. Now it’s nearly $4. Nationally, the average cost for a gallon of gasoline is $3.20. It was $2.40 when the current administration took office.

According to the House Budget Committee, mortgage interest rates have risen from 2.7% in January 2021 to the current rate of 6.4% – the most rapid rate increase since the end of the Jimmy Carter presidency and the beginning of Ronald Reagan’s term.

Equally alarming, renting has become more costly than buying. According to Florida Housing Data Clearinghouse, rent increased by 45.77% in the last three years to a monthly average of $1,591 for a two-bedroom apartment.

People are finally pushing back.

Global supermarket chain Carrefour pulled all PepsiCo products from its shelves of 9,000 stores last week in France, Spain, Italy and Belgium because of “unacceptable price increases.”

That means you can’t buy Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Rice-A-Roni, Lay’s potato chips, 7UP, Lipton Iced Tea, Cheetos or Quaker Oats products after PepsiCo increased its prices by more than 10% in seven consecutive quarters.

Although PepsiCo reported a 14% increase in profits, it defended higher prices because cooking oil now costs more following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Stew Leonard’s, a New Jersey, New York and Connecticut supermarket chain, said it wouldn’t accept any more big company price increases because their customers were finally pushing back.

A McDonald’s in Connecticut sells the Big Mac combo meal – a sandwich, fries and soft drink – for $17.59. The location wasn’t in an airport, either.

I was a customer at the same car insurance company for more than 20 years. I have a good driving record and a 12-year-old car, but I got an $800-a-year rate increase for my loyalty. The company told me it’s because the cost of repairing and replacing cars has increased, so it passed those costs to its customers. I asked why reckless drivers weren’t responsible for the extra costs. I didn’t get an answer.

So, I pushed back. I changed companies. I’m contemplating doing the same with cable television.

Those of us with AT&T’s U-verse or DirecTV took our local NBA and ABC broadcasts off the air for six weeks. Tenga Inc. owns channels 12 and 25 here, and according to AT&T, it dropped the stations because Tenga wanted more money.

That meant fans with DirecTV couldn’t watch the Jacksonville-Baltimore game on Sunday Night Football because it was on NBC.

Also, local subscribers of DISH Network haven’t been able to watch FOX30 since November 2022 because station owner Cox Media Group wanted more money.

Tenga was originally part of Gannett Company. Tenga/Gannett has $3 billion in revenues. AT&T acquired DirecTV in 2015, and together they have more than $67 billion in revenues. Cox has annual revenues of $21 billion, while DISH is worth $3.08 billion.

And customers were caught in the middle of the money grab.

Last Saturday, NBC pushed its first-round playoff game between Kansas City and Miami to its streaming service, Peacock. The collective seething over the pay-per-view format came on the same day Tenga and DirecTV settled their stalemate.

More than 20 years ago, Eartha Kitt famously said, “Greed is so destructive. It destroys everything.”

Things have changed since Kitt made that comment. Sadly, one thing may never change – greed.