Letter to the editor: Stop corporate gouging

In 2021, oil and gas companies made billions in record profits and decided to give that money to executives and shareholders rather than help consumers by stabilizing gas prices. Exxon Mobil announced $23 billion in earnings in 2021, its highest in seven years. It is expected to generate $41 billion of net income in 2022.

Opportunistic price hikes and excess profits also are happening in other industries. Tyson Foods, the nation’s biggest meat processor, posted quarter profits up 48% from a year earlier due to price increases. Home Depot profits up 38%; ADM food up 55%; McDonald’s up 59%; Keurig Dr Pepper up 83%. Our beef cartel profits in 2021 were 300% higher than in the previous year.

Top U.S. corporations are raising prices on us even as net profits surge by a median of 49%, based on pre-pandemic levels. Companies are using those profits for stock buybacks, executive compensation and bumps in dividends instead of helping their consumers by holding down prices. 2021 was the most profitable year for corporations since 1950.

Tell Washington you support Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse and Elizabeth Warren’s windfall profit tax not only on oil and gas companies but on those companies gouging the American consumer. This is how the ultra rich get richer and everyone else gets poorer.

Julia Bojalad

North Huntingdon