Tuesday, during an interview with Mobile radio FM Talk 106.5's "The Jeff Poor Show," Agriculture & Industries Commissioner Rick Pate reacted to the possibility of the federal government under President Kamala Harris implementing price controls to curb inflation.
Pate said store margins were already very tight and was skeptical about how one could arbitrarily impose such a system.
"That'd be terrible," Pate said. "I don't know at what point you put those price controls. How can you — I mean, to prove that somebody really was charging. But I mean, in America, the whole thing about competition, we've got people competing with everybody. There's hardly any industries where somebody else is not competing with them. And so, obviously, people are trying to make a living and draw a fair wage. But yeah, somebody would come in, and like I said earlier, take markets here from them if they were just arbitrarily going up and gouging people out."
"Yeah, I don't — as what I know about the economy, I don't even know how you — that's just a political statement," he continued. "I mean, I just can't even imagine you would go in and start saying, you know, you will make people maintain this price, no matter what their input cost has changed. Now, yeah, you know, yeah, I think that's just political talk. Surely they're not going to do that."
Jeff Poor is the editor in chief of 1819 News and host of "The Jeff Poor Show," heard Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-noon on Mobile's FM Talk 106.5. To connect or comment, email jeff.poor@1819News.com or follow him on Twitter @jeff_poor.
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