After reading Mr. Ron Fink’s opinion piece in the Opinion section of the Sun’s March 24 edition (“Our county needs change”), I am primed for the claptrap that follows the subhead, “Three county supervisors support inflation.”
I would challenge anyone to ask any of the supervisors, or anyone with knowledge of how our socioeconomic systems work, as to whether they support inflation, and you’d get resounding “nos” from 100 percent of respondents. Why would anyone support inflation? To say that three county supervisors are in support of that primes the reader to understand that Mr. Fink is going to lay out an argument that is premised on your acceptance of his unsupported mischaracterization of another’s position on an issue.
This is the seed of misinformation that has permeated our media, and Mr. Fink is a purveyor of this toxic bombast that is fighting for the attention of those who are easily swayed by faulty arguments.
Mr. Fink correctly points out inflationary actions on the part of the government, specifically the printing of more money to partially remedy the economic disaster that COVID-19 inflicted (not to mention nearly 1 million deaths). Additionally inflationary pressures are brought on by the increase in minimum wage (perhaps allowing those who earn minimum wage to survive on only two jobs). He conveniently leaves out the gargantuan profits being earned by our own oil producing (and government subsidized) companies as they raise prices on all Americans while they still ship oil overseas at a profit.
Mr. Fink goes on to blame President Biden for not replacing the 3 percent of oil we had been importing from Russia for their invasion of the Ukraine. Perhaps he should tell our oil companies to stop shipping overseas? Would Mr. Fink then be screaming that a president cannot tell private enterprise what to do in the national interest?
The last paragraph of Mr. Fink’s opinion piece is the clincher that he wants the reader to focus only on electing leaders who will ease our burden at the gas pumps. This shortsighted and selfish position will appeal to the greedy at the expense of the greater good.
Robert Perry
Buellton
This article appears in Mar 31 – Apr 7, 2022.