US Presidency
1978

But again, government alone can not bring down the rate of inflation. When a level of high inflation is expected to continue, then companies raise prices to protect their profit margins against prospective increases in wages and other costs, while workers demand higher wages as protection against expected price increases. It's like an escalation in the arms race, and understandably, no one wants to disarm alone. Now, no one firm or a group of workers can halt this process. It's an effort that we must all make together. I am therefore asking government, business, labor, and other groups to join in a voluntary program to moderate inflation by holding wage and price increases in each sector of the economy during 1978 below the average increases of the last two years. I do not believe in wage and price controls. A sincere commitment to voluntary constraint provides a way, perhaps the only way, to fight inflation without government interference. As I came into the Capitol tonight, I saw the farmers, my fellow farmers, standing out in the snow.