7 June—“‘Consumers are angry’” is the half-banner headline on the front page of this morning’s Republican-American. It’s a quotation from Sen. Richie Blumenthal. And when Richie’s right, Richie is right. It may not be all that often, but what the hell.

My initial reaction was that the Waterbury rag was finally admitting that drastically raising its cover and subscription prices while drastically reducing its content in every way was really pissing off readers. But then I read the sub-head: “Filling the tank now costs close to $5 a gallon.” And the picture showed that filling a diesel tank costs $5.999 a gallon. How much closer can you get to $6 a gallon?

That was yesterday.

We all know that inflation in the United States—isn’t that the only inflation we care about, after all?—is at a four-decade high. We can affix blame on poor old Joe Biden, his administration, and Democrats’ irresponsible spending and money printing. Or COVID. Or Putrid vs. Ukraine and the good guys. Or global warming. Or capitalism. Or the wrath of the gods.

You name it. But does it matter who’s responsible for inflation? Except when it comes to campaigning and voting, of course. What matters is who’s bearing the brunt, who’s suffering the most, who’s low man on the inflation totem pole. And that—need I remind you?—is the consumer, the poor schmuck end-user who can’t pass costs on to anyone else.

Every level in the mercantile chain of production and distribution can and usually does pass on all costs, including taxes, to the next lower level. But there’s no lower level for the consumers to pass costs to. So we suffer.

Economists and politicians like to say that inflation causes everyone to suffer. That may be true to a certain extent, but only insofar as everyone is an end-of-the-line, bottom-of-the-totem-pole consumer. Business owners seem to be doing as well as ever, many even better than ever. Among other things, inflation provides an opportunity for businesses to sneakily raise prices and profit margins beyond the inflation rate. Who’s to know?

Moreover, with consolidation—euphemized as rationalization—of industries at all levels, which always and only limits consumer options, the abuse is even more despicable in inflationary times. Monopolies and oligopolies benefit only the monopolies and oligopolies themselves. Consumers may bitch, but so what? Let ’em find other providers—if they can.

How many business owners or corporate executives do you know who have really been suffering lately?