NEW POLL: Voters Convinced that Corporate Greed is Driving Inflation

NEW POLL: Voters Convinced that Corporate Greed is Driving Inflation, Strongly Support Policies Tackling Issue Head-On

Today, Groundwork Collaborative released a new poll from Data for Progress gauging the public’s perceptions on recent inflation. The results, as mentioned in Yahoo Finance, showed that a majority of voters blame large corporations for price increases and strongly support policies that address monopoly behavior and corporate profiteering head-on.

“Big corporations aren’t shy in telling their investors how they’re taking advantage of the pandemic to jack up prices and pad their own profits – and the public is noticing,” said Groundwork’s Executive Director Lindsay Owens. “Policymakers should listen to voters by cracking down on corporations raising prices unfairly, addressing corporate consolidation and monopoly power, and increasing taxes on corporations.”

Top points from the new poll (see the full polling deck here):

• 63% believe that “large corporations are taking advantage of the pandemic to raise prices unfairly on consumers and increase profits” vs. 29% who believe “large corporations have no choice but to raise prices in response to rising costs.”
• 80% support the federal government “Crack[ing] down on large corporations that raise prices unfairly, and promot[ing competition between businesses to lower prices for consumers and small businesses.”
  • This includes 79% of independents and 74% of Republicans
• Data for Progress conducted a survey of 1,549 likely voters nationally between Feb. 18 and 22 using web panel respondents. The sample was weighted to be representative of likely voters by age, gender, education, race, and voting history. The margin of error is ±3 percentage points.

Some recent coverage includes:

• Yahoo Finance: Corporate America’s 2021 profits were higher than ever. The group is also releasing a new survey this week of 1,549 likely voters from Groundwork Collaborative and Data for Progress that finds 63% of respondents believe large corporations are “taking advantage of the pandemic to raise prices unfairly and increase profits.” Even 51% of Republicans agreed with that sentiment. [2/25/22]
• NBC LX: Companies Used Inflation as an Excuse to Jack Up Prices, and She’s Got the Receipts. Many businesses have posted rising profits and 70-year-high profit margins since the pandemic. But executives have also talked openly in earnings calls about raising prices, and then saying the increases were due to inflation. And Lindsay Owens and her organization Groundwork Collaborative have the receipts to prove it. [2/23/22]
• Vox: Corporate pricing is boosting inflation — but we’re still buying. “The preconditions for the price hikes we’re seeing today long predate the pandemic,” Owens told Vox via email. “Companies are able to take advantage of a crisis like the pandemic precisely because these foundations were set in place long before the crisis itself. And in corporate earnings call after corporate earnings call, executives are using inflation as a cover for egregious price hikes to boost their own profits.” [2/20/22]
• Fortune: Is inflation really this bad, or are greedy companies profiting off the pandemic? “These megacorporations are making bank off of people who are just struggling to keep their heads above water,” Mabud says. “That’s unfair. It’s unfair, but it’s also bad for our economy. Our economy does best when we all do well—not these big corporations.” [2/19/22]
• The Problem with Jon Stewart: Alongside staff writers Henrik and Kasaun, Jon welcomes inflation expert Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative, to discuss greedy CEOs jacking up prices. [2/17/22]