Still On Price Regulation!!!

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Yesterday, based on the past topic, I made a post sharing my opinion on price regulation and why it was important. Yeah, the government can’t control every single price out there, there are some goods and services that will always be at the discretion of the providers. Still, there have to be laws in place guiding even those prices. Controlling the rate of price increment or reduction, not just for the sake of the customers, but also for the sake of others in the same business as well.

But then, besides draining the average citizens financially or crippling businesses that can’t engage in a price war, there are also more devastating effects of such things. And this can affect the economy in very severe ways. And you know that once the economy is at stake, then everything else in the country is at risk. That’s how bad it is.

Yesterday, I talked about rent and how landlords increase it whenever they feel like it, without even considering the financial implications of it. This particular act can be linked to one of the reasons the economy is terrible in my country. I’ll tell you what I mean.

You see, when a landlord charges excessively for rent, the tenant would have to pay it or risk getting evicted. But then, where can they get the money from? Their source of livelihood. And for the sake of this post, I’ll focus on those in business. Most of the time, to make up for such exorbitant increments, they simply increase the price of their goods and services. Just like that. But then, the businessman’s customers won’t like the increase either, but they can’t help it, they’ll either take that out on their employers or on their customers as well.

One way or the other, it will circle back to the Landlord himself, who would have to buy things that used to be cheap, but are now very expensive. When he checks his bank account, he sees that he doesn’t have enough to make ends meet. So, he goes to his only cash cow: his tenants! He then hikes up the rent yet again! On and on it goes, and because of that, the economy keeps taking a hit. You keep wondering how things are getting so expensive, but it’s issues like this. Greed might be the starting point most of the time, but once that wheel starts rolling, there’s usually no stopping it.

Another industry where things like this happen a lot is transportation. Sometimes, you can’t help but wonder if those guys aren’t demons disguised as humans. Even the smallest sign of trouble, and they’d shoot their prices up! Just a dark cloud in the sky, they’d add an extra N200 to the fare. A small rain? Pay double. Heavy rain? Pay triple. Night time? Pay 50% more! Even in scarcity, they’d still charge you exorbitantly. Sometimes, you wonder if they’re not going through the same bad times as you.

The issue is that when business owners find it so hard and expensive to go from place to place, especially if they have to deal with transporting their goods, these expenses will be passed down to the customers who will have to pay through their noses. And the customers also include the bloody drivers themselves! This is just how crazy it is.

So, if there is any hope of the economy being saved or inflation being fixed, we have to consider regulating the prices of the most basic needs of life. Shelter, food, water, transportation, and power. These are things that people will go to the ends of the earth for, anything else is secondary. They need to exert an iron hand on such things. Transport should be a fixed price, it doesn’t matter if it’s raining or there’s a tsunami. Don’t increase the price! It can be quite frustrating thinking you have enough to get you home, but because of a little rain that fell, you suddenly have to pay extra.

Well, I just hope we can get better and be better. Because we really deserve better.

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_{Thank you for reading. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below, I would love to know what you’re thinking. Till we meet in the next post.}

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_{N.B: All images used in this post are mine. The thumbnail was designed using Canva.}

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