Greed alone is not responsible for high prices | Opinion

**Tim McIver** _lives in South Portland._ A May 25 letter, [“Greed is pricing Mainers out of vacationing in Maine,”](https://www.pressherald.com/2026/05/28/greed-is-pricing-mainers-out-of-vacationing-in-maine-letter/) expresses a frustration many of us share. It is undeniably true that life has become more expensive. Whether it’s groceries, housing, gasoline, restaurant meals or camping, prices seem higher everywhere we look. The letter writer blames greed. But greed does not explain why prices rise. After all, are campground owners greedier today than they were 10 or 20 years ago? Were they somehow less interested in making money when campsites were half the price? Of course not. Business owners have always tried to maximize revenue, just as consumers have always tried to get the most value for their money. Economists have a simpler and less judgmental term for this behavior: self-interest. We all act in our own interests. Employees ask for raises. Shoppers hunt for bargains. Families compare prices before making purchases. Retirees look for the best value when planning a vacation. Likewise, campground owners try to earn as much as they can from their property. None of this is new. Human nature has not changed. And that is precisely why greed cannot explain rising prices. If greed is constant, it explains nothing. So what does explain it? One obvious factor is inflation. Advertisement Inflation has been with us for so long that many people seem to regard it as a force of nature; something beyond our control. In reality, inflation is fundamentally a monetary phenomenon. When governments and central banks expand the money supply faster than the production of goods and services, the purchasing power of each dollar declines. This causes all prices to rise: property taxes, insurance, utilities, labor, maintenance and construction costs. Campground owners face the same rising costs as everyone else. If Mainers are angry about rising prices, they should ask why the Federal Reserve openly targets a policy under which prices are expected to rise year after year. A 2% annual inflation target may sound small, but over time it substantially erodes purchasing power. Campground owners may set the price of campsites, but they do not control the value of the dollar. The Federal Reserve does. If campgrounds are routinely filling hundreds of campsites at current rates, that tells us something important. Large numbers of people are voluntarily deciding that the experience is worth the price. The fact that some people are unwilling or unable to pay those prices does not mean the owners are greedy. It simply means different people place different values on the same experience. In fact, if campground owners could have charged $150 per night 20 years ago and still filled every site, why didn’t they? Presumably because they couldn’t. Customers would not have paid it. The fact that they can charge those prices today tells us something has changed in the marketplace, not in human nature. I share the letter writer’s frustration with rising prices. But blaming greed mistakes the symptom for the cause. The more likely explanation is a combination of inflation, rising operating costs and strong demand for a limited number of campsites. There is a silver lining to all of this, at least where the demand part of the explanation is concerned. High prices at campgrounds mean people want to come here. And that should come as no surprise to those of us who live here year-round. Maine is a wonderful place to be. This is Vacationland! It’s the way life should be. Copy the Story Link Tagged: [columns](https://www.pressherald.com/tag/columns/)