Corporations Might Trigger a Democratic Recession

US corporations received more aid during the pandemic than everyday Americans—and their profits are up during this period of inflation. While Americans need to understand the profit forces behind price-hikes, there’s still more the Democrats can do to help.

Sunday, June the 12th, 2022, Reuters reported that the stock market had fallen yet again due to inflation concerns. The S&P 500 has fallen 10 percent this year, and major corporations have seen their stock prices fall. For instance, according to Yahoo Finance, Apple has fallen 34 percent since the beginning of this year.

While some might be eager to blame President Joe Biden, inflation is not just an American problem. Prices, especially gas prices, have gone up all over the world, way out of President Biden’s reach. This has nothing to do with the presidency. Instead, it’s about corporate control over prices.

Corporations have been hiding under the excuse that the raise of wages and shipping costs have led to inflation, and yet profits for major US companies are at an all-time high, according to The Ledger. Thus, their argument is invalid and based on nothing except the words of the corporations themselves.

Meanwhile, wealth inequality is still high, and the cost of living has only increased. As reported by Reuters, the cost of buying and owning a home is the highest it has ever been. If there is anyone lacking in profits, it is the average American citizen who is now being asked to pay more and more for the same quantity and quality of goods.

If any entity suffered through the pandemic and had financial troubles, it is the average American citizen who lost loved ones, their jobs, and possibly their homes.

According to The Washington Post, corporations received bailouts from Republicans back in 2020 to help them get through the pandemic without suffering any corporate hardships. Combined, the major US corporations received more help from the government than middle-class and working-class US citizens did during the pandemic. If corporations needed government assistance so badly back then to make it through the pandemic, they didn’t (and still don’t) need to receive help from the average American citizen.

CEO’s salaries have increased, according to Harvard, while most Americans still live paycheck to paycheck. Therefore, the question the American public should be asking is not why the Biden administration is causing inflation but why are American corporations hiding behind an invalid price to justify a practice that is all too similar to price gouging?

Corporations are purposely wounding the pockets of everyday Americans for their interests and hurting the stock market as they do it. And while wealthy investors might see the stock market as nothing but a bunch of numbers, everyday Americans, who depend on the stock market for retirement and savings, see it as their ticket to financial freedom.

If fewer Americans can participate in the markets and put less money into the economy, it would be enough to trigger a recession, an economic cycle that millennials and now Generation Z are all too familiar with. And while corporations might not want to stop inflating the prices of the goods they sell, the necessity for them to do so outweighs their desire to fill their pockets.

What the Biden Administration needs to do at this moment is to pass a bill that would prevent price gouging. This would not only win back Americans who have grown disillusioned with the Biden Administration but also gives the Biden Administration the chance to show that it is on the side of the everyday American citizen. If the Democratic Party hopes to win the American public back, it has to take immediate action.

After all, the old saying is that Americans vote with their wallet, and if American wallets continue to suffer while Democrats are in office, it will mean disaster.

At the end of the day, the people who are suffering are the people who are going to the polls in the midterms, and since the Republican’s and the average American corporation’s response is to deflect blame onto Biden and the Democratic Party, it will be the Democrats who suffer heavy losses. The Democratic Party has to do something and do it fast. It is the only way to ensure working-class and middle-class Americans that Democrats are on their side.