Ron Wyden Quotes
I think we have to ask this administration, and the President specifically, about using their political capital now to stand up for the American consumer who is getting clobbered by these gasoline and oil prices.
United States, Congress, Senate. Senator Ron Wyden speaking on Gasoline Prices. Congressional Record, vol. 152, 2006. Government Publishing Office.
She was then the European Commissioner for Competition
The State Department pressured counties to involve the private sector of foreign countries in aid programs.
This would seem a much easier solution to the problem of monopoly holders charging outrageous prices than trying to fix profits or lay a large tax on the profits. However, few governments ever do this. In many cases the patent holders control or heavily influence the government. There is in addition, in most Judeo-Christian societies an assumption that most people have a moral sense and will not take undue advantage of customers just because they have the power to do so. And in the most egregious cases of monopoly pricing there were many other patents where the inventors were not gouging the consumers. It is always been the minority of businesses that have taken gross advantage of patent monopolies. However at some periods, where there was an oligarchy, all the companies in an area abused their patent monopolies together. An example would be the pharmaceutical industry of the early 21st century.
Whenever price controls have been tried, there always seems to develop a black market. However, some argue that price controls can work very well for a modest period of time in a national emergency and give WWII as an example. Although there was a black market, very few Americans participated in it, and the effect was positive as a result of the patriotism that was so keenly felt by most Americans at that time. Further, capital punishment has rarely worked to prevent any illegal activity. In London, pickpockets were publicly hung while other pickpockets fleeced the crowd watching the hanging ostensibly to dissuade people from pickpocketing.
The prime minister had a political and philosophical position that government should not interfere with or set or control pricing in the economy. However, a scandal broke out involving payday lending—short term lending the working class does to tide them over till pay day if they run out of money. Lenders were charging huge interest rates beyond anything that is conscionable. Cameron’s government placed controls on interest rates and other facets of that industry as they might have lost a vote of confidence in Parliament had they not acted. He was then questioned about the hypocrisy involved in his regulation, and he gave this amazing quotation, which was the classic reason for government price controls on the private sector that had been given by the Labor Party opponents for years. This also distressed extreme conservatives, who argue that market controls are always preferable to government controls.
Ronald Lee Wyden is an American politician who is currently serving as the senior United States Senator for Oregon, a seat he has held since 1996. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served in the United States House of Representatives from 1981 until 1996. He is the current dean of Oregon's congressional delegation.
