So, I have been receiving multiple messages by email since we lost the midterm elections on Tuesday. They ask, "Governor Hochul, where do you stand?"

The messages allege that New Yorkers cannot afford the high price of food.

My response is typically as follows: 

Do you know that prices of nearly everything—with the exceptions of gas and oil (which are due to the Iran War, but the oil glut and lower prices are coming), and housing (due to unsatisfied demand; Americans have been buying houses left and right for decades while new construction has been hampered by all kinds of regulations)—are lower than they were 51 years ago in 1975, adjusted for inflation?

I said before that both Democrats and Republicans are alternatively accusing the other party, depending on who is in power, of high prices and sky-high inflation. They are conditioned by media that has no understanding of economics and the mathematics of inflation. So now, after the Republicans lost the midterms, the "new" but failed strategy is to accuse the Democratic administration of the State of New York of high prices and inflation.

It is too bad that the unknowing public falls for such populist nonsense, as it feels so good to complain about those allegedly high prices.

The problem, if there is any problem, is elsewhere than in prices and inflation. 

As the saying goes, "We have met the enemy, and it is us!"

Ivan Orisek lives in Forestburgh, NY.