Did We Vote for This?

By Rob C.

Art by Dave Whamond

While Trump and his cronies bludgeon free speech and cozy up to fascism, Americans are being strangled by sky-high prices. Groceries, housing, and energy costs aren’t “acts of God” or the fault of immigrant workers—they’re the direct result of unchecked corporate greed. Insurers like UnitedHealth deny lifesaving care, Wall Street hoards housing after crashing the economy, and oil giants rake in taxpayer subsidies while laughing all the way to the bank. The result? Families get squeezed, billionaires get fatter, and politicians look the other way. If we actually want a functioning democracy, we need to stop letting corporations write the rules and start putting people before profit.

The Trump Administration has entered its final form: a mash-up of authoritarian cosplay and corporate bootlicking. Free speech? Forget it. Corporate mergers now trump the First Amendment — fascism 101. Pam Bondi, suddenly rebranded the Justice Dept. as America’s speech police, threatens to crack down on “hate speech” (translation: anything critical of Trump or the right), while Kash Patel ties himself into a logic pretzel trying to explain why Trump’s Epstein ties should stay hidden. And corporate America is more than happy to play along, because nothing oils the gears of creeping authoritarianism like campaign donations and monopoly protection.

Meanwhile, regular Americans are getting squeezed. Inflation, stubborn grocery prices, and rising unemployment aren’t abstract charts in an economics textbook — they’re the empty pantry, the skipped doctor visit, the “sorry, rent is going up again” text from your landlord. And make no mistake: these aren’t accidents of fate. They’re the result of deliberate corporate greed, protected and amplified by politicians who cash their checks.

1. Pay Up or Die - The Hunger Games

Grocery prices are still painfully high, even though supply chains have mostly untangled. In August 2025, food-at-home prices (groceries) were rising at 2.7% year-over-year, the fastest in two years. Meat prices are killing wallets — steak up ~16.6%, ground beef and roasts both up around 13-14%. Eggs, produce, dairy — all creeping up.¹

Inflation overall is stubborn too. The CPI (all items) rose 2.9% over the past 12 months; food rose 3.2%. Even “core” inflation (excluding food and energy) is sitting at ~3.1%.²

Healthcare is another horror show. UnitedHealth continues denying large portions of claims. The company reportedly has a denial rate far above industry average (32%), leading many patients to suffer harm, delay or even die while waiting for appeal.³

2. Wall Street Stole Your Home - Then Rigged the Rent

Housing is worse than “tight.” It’s like someone locked the lid on the pot and turned up the heat. Rents in many U.S. metros have gone through the roof — median asking rent rose ~4-6% in many cities in 2025 compared to 2024.⁴

In California, monthly payments for mid-tier homes (mortgage + taxes + insurance) reached over $5,900/month in June 2025 — up ~82% since January 2020. Bottom-tier homes are north of $3,600/month.⁵ Rents didn’t just go up; they outran wage growth by miles.

Corporate landlords and Big Banks long ago turned what were meant to be homes into profit machines. After the 2008 collapse, when the banks were bailed out, instead of returning housing to regular folks, many held onto or bought up foreclosures, turning them into rental inventory priced as high as the market would bear. The BlackRocks and Invitation Homes of the world are playing checkers on communities.

3. Pump, Profit, Repeat - Subsidizing Our Own Extinction

Gasoline and energy prices haven’t cratered enough to relieve the squeeze — or haven’t for everyone. Meanwhile, fossil fuel companies are treating record profits as their birthright. The U.S. fossil fuel industry still gets $34.8 billion/year in subsidies just from handouts and favorable tax policies.⁶

Even more jaw-dropping: when these companies claim high costs, they’re often talking about compliance or regulation — while their biggest expense (or non-expense) is subsidy lobbying, regulatory capture, and externalizing environmental & health costs onto communities. All the while, utility bills and energy rates soar, particularly for low-income families who can least afford fluctuation.

4. How We Fix It - People Over Profits

(Not a communist plot — just basic decency.) Medicare for All or a robust public option would blow open the monopoly that insurers hold over life and death. Housing reform must include anti-bulk-buying rules, housing supply increases, rent control or stabilization, and stronger oversight of corporate landlords. For energy, a windfall profits tax, repealing fossil subsidies, investing in renewable infrastructure, and regulation that forces accountability, not just talking points.

As I wrote in Democracy for Sale: How Corporate Greed is Corrupting Democracy and Endangering the Planet, corporations already have most of the power. Fixing these issues means reclaiming it for the people.

Inflation isn’t an accident. It’s what happens when political and corporate power aligns. High prices, low wages, and even lower moral values are what you get when democracy is sold to the highest bidder. The question isn’t whether we can fix it. It’s whether we’ll stop voting for the very people who profit from keeping us gouged and desperate.

Footnotes

1. Grocery Dive, “Grocery inflation: Food prices rose in August 2025,” 2025. ↩

2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index Summary, August 2025. ↩

3. The New Yorker, “What the murder of UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson means to America,” 2025. ↩

4. SmartAsset, “Where rents rose the most in 2025,” 2025. ↩

5. California Legislative Analyst’s Office, “California Housing Payments,” June 2025. ↩

6. Oil Change International, “Paying for Climate Chaos: U.S. Fossil Fuel Subsidies,” 2025. ↩