A very happy 2023 to the readers of Rapp Up! And welcome to the finale of our 2022 Scrooge awards! In this edition we look at two companies who demonstrate remarkable audacity in their scrooginess - and award the Grand Prize!

If you missed Day 1 of our Scrooge Awards, here is a link to it: 2022 Scrooge Awards, Day 1. Otherwise, read on! And, if you have not already, please subscribe!

At #2: For lobbying Congress to put monopoly profits over affordable baby formula:

Remember the scandalous baby formula shortage of this past summer? That shortage was the direct result of two things — the over-concentration of US formula production in only four companies and a combination of regs and tariffs that effectively banned imports. That was great for the companies - but when one of them was forced to shut down its factory because of unsanitary practices, American parents really suffered!

The Biden administration and Congress (mostly) solved the immediate problem by opening the door to high-quality imports. But now, writes the Washington Post, thanks to “a pressure campaign from the U.S. dairy industry, Congress’s temporary tariff suspension is set to expire at the end of this year." In short, even though baby formula availability is still problematic and prices high, the industry has pressured our political leaders to restrict parents’ access to other sources of formula in 2023. Free markets and real competition? Bah humbug, who needs that? Strangling the competition is a Christmas gift that Scrooge would understand!

For using lobbying power to put profits over babies, this Scrooge award goes to the baby formula industry.

Want to learn more?  Read here: Baby Formula tariffs, Catherine Rampell, Washington Post, December 15, 2022; Washington Post, Alyssa Rosenberg, September 21, 2022; Center for American Progress, June 17, 2022.

And at #1 and the Grand Prize - the scroogiest of Scrooges! For outrageously price-gouging mobile home park residents who have nowhere else to turn:

The venture capital industry has found a new way to make an easy buck at the expense of those less-fortunate.  Mobile home parks have long been an important part of our affordable housing safety net, especially in rural areas.  The residents usually own their homes and just pay a very modest rent to the park owners for the right to live there.  

The big money people, however, have realized that these homes actually aren’t mobile at all – and that means that rents there can easily be doubled or tripled and the residents are just stuck.  They can’t afford to leave and can barely afford to stay. Attracted by the lure of easy profits, therefore, venture capital companies have been piling into mobile home parks. In fact, even mega firms like Blackstone and the Carlyle Group (the firm headed by Glenn Youngkin from 2018 to 2020) have gone on mobile home park buying sprees.

The consequences of all this big-money attention can be very sad for the residents. To understand how this plays out here in rural Virginia, read this article in Cardinal News, detailing how the venture capital firm Alden Capital (yes, the very same Alden that has been scooping up and gutting local newspapers) bought a mobile home park in Montgomery County — and then promptly sent out notices of eviction unless the tenants did not immediately pay sums as large as $700! But, as NPR reporter Julie Reynolds explains in this NPR report, “In some communities, legal experts have said, what they're doing - it may be immoral, but it is legal.” Wow, Scrooge is really impressed!

Our scroogiest Scrooge award therefore goes to the wealthy venture capital firms - for preying on the defenseless residents of mobile home parks. Scrooge is blown away by your audacity!

Want to learn more?  Read here: the New Yorker, March 15, 2021; Cardinal News, Nov 2, 2022; NPR.ORG, Nov. 26, 2022; WTOP, July 2021

Thankfully, of course, we at New Rural Virginia believe the companies named here to be the exception. There are still many companies that strive to do well by their customers and their employees.

That said, the bad apples not only exist, but they can do a lot of damage - and not just to us but to other companies. How much harder to do the right thing, after all, when your competitor cares for nothing but profits!

As powerful as these companies are, however, and despite the millions of dollars they pour into lobbying, we still have something they don’t have — votes! And that is why our representatives will listen to us — if they hear from us.

So for this New Year’s, please make a resolution to follow and understand the real issues — not the phony “cultural issue” stuff that some candidates and the dark money people throw at us — but what really matters for making our economy fairer, our people healthier, and our children better provided for. And ask your representatives how they intend to vote on those issues — not just what party they are from.

And have a very happy 2023!