"companies are price gouging-a 10 cent-a cup increase in energy costs doesn't justify increasing the coffee prices by 30%" Yes it does, not only energy is one thing, but there's all of the other costs to cover, among which supply chain which I didn't talk about in the article.

"Companies have increased their prices for the sake of stakeholder profit" There is not data that support that. In fact, the data shows that bankruptcies have never been as high as during the last year.

"running costs would also drastically increase" this assumes that governments are more efficient at levying and spending money, which is hilariously not true. I recommend the book "Taxes: a very short introduction"

"There's a reason tax-free countries are subsidized by oil money or foreign investments." Congrats, it's the actually *the opposit*: tax free countries are places with zero resources (islands, switzerland, andorra, luxembourg, etc). They offer low taxes in order to attract economic activity because they know this is what creates wealth. Rich-oil countries have normal levels of taxes and are often poor due to the resource curce.

In conclusion, this comment is poorly informed.