As American families brace for the holiday season, a fierce price war over Thanksgiving turkeys has erupted, revealing deeper currents within the nation's economic landscape.
Details:
- Retailers are engaged in an aggressive price war, selling Thanksgiving turkeys at or below cost to attract shoppers, squeezing profit margins for smaller grocers.
- This calculated market distortion, where foundational goods are manipulated to secure consumer allegiance, echoes the Crown's historic policies to dictate colonial trade and industry through bounties and duties.
- Despite a national turkey flock at its smallest in 40 years and wholesale prices up 40%, retail prices are down, creating an artificial relief valve for an American populace feeling financially "squeezed."
Why it Matters:
The current turkey price wars, while ostensibly a boon, mask a deeper erosion of economic self-determination. When market behemoths dictate pricing through unsustainable loss-leader strategies, they marginalize smaller businesses and condition the populace to expect artificially suppressed costs. This dynamic, where illusion supplants stability, creates systemic vulnerability. As John Dickinson observed, rivals could "supply their markets cheaper than they can themselves, notwithstanding any efforts to prevent it by bounties on their own or duties on foreign fish." Today, "bounties" are corporate write-downs, "duties" borne by independent grocers and a precarious supply chain. The true cost of a cheap turkey may be the quiet surrender of economic liberty to centralized power.