We’ve systematically destroyed competition in the market in our country by allowing consolidation to the point where only a few companies own everything. Is it so surprising that now prices are increasing?

Controlling prices with shaming tactics is far less effective than controlling prices using competition.

Therefore discussing “cover” as if we only expect companies to raise prices when they can justify it with some cover story, is acquiescing to the weakest form of price controls there is: public opinion.

Let companies control their prices by seeking profit, in a context of competition, where if they set their prices too high their sales drop and their profits suffer.

Letting companies exist, without a context of competition to force their self interest to align with fair pricing, and then trying to use shaming techniques to steer their behavior, is like inviting a bull into the dining room, unshackling all its chains and removing all physical constraint, then smiling at it to keep it from trampling your dinner.

“Let’s make sure all these bulls are being consistently smiled at” is what this headline reads like.

Pretending that “cover” or its lack is the key factor in corporations raising prices, means that we’ve completely lost sight of competition.

Why would we forget a key economic reality such as competition? Why would we not be discussing that as factor at work in pricing?

Could it be that the mere recognition of competition as a factor in pricing would be embarrassing to the powers that be? Could it be there’s been a massive breakdown in the competition mechanism in every industry in the past half decade?

Why aren’t we discussing that? Why are we playing tea party and discussing how ghastly rude it is to raise prices, when we should be screaming about the active destruction of the only price control process that has ever worked?