Grocers not to blame

Re. Poll: Should Ottawa force Canada's major grocery chains to stabilize food prices? (Castanet, Sept. 18)

I’m amazed to see such a high percentage of people think state-imposed price controls are the way to curb rising prices.

First, we should all recognize the cause (of high food costs). When you print money, you cause inflation (expansion of the money supply). That devalues every other dollar in circulation, so your purchasing power per unit of currency is degraded. Thus, in terms of dollars, goods must cost more.

If you throw on a carbon tax, then all of the goods and services you're seeking cost more due to the increased cost on the supplier of those goods and services.

It is not grocery stores, it's government that has made your life expensive. This is the consequence of doubling the national debt, creating money for nothing and ineptitude and foolishness.

You need to know that every “boondoggle” the government spends money on, from aid for Ukraine to the pandemic response, has this same effect.

You need to understand inflation is a specific, silent tax on the middle class, on the wage earner.

You can expect this to persist going forward. It is the new normal of taxation. There hasn't been a debate about raising or lowering the GST in 20 years, and that's because (the government) found it could tax you without your outrage raining down on them.

Do not blame grocery stores. Competition reduces prices. If a mom and pop shop can offer better (prices) than big box stores, they will take the business until the big box stores reduces their prices. That is econonomics 101

Price controls, on the other hand, are from the communist playbook. They do not work. Government cannot compel stores to sell at a loss, so they'll subsidize the difference or they'll tax the retailer, who will pass the cost on to you or go out of business.

I know it's tempting to want a fix for the ails of the day, but “daddy” government is what got us into this mess, and it has never gotten us out of one before.

Remember, when it points its finger at something for fault (grocery stores, housing, the unvaccinated, carbon) there are three fingers pointing back at it.

Blain Fode