Government Caused Food Shortages
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We talked about it a post or two ago, the shortages of food at the food banks. Now we wanna talk about what is helping to cause the shortages, and the downright insane “solution” offered by the president. In short laws are restricting the sale of food straight from farmers to the people or food banks in many areas. Some laws are so restrictive that the farmers can’t even donate the food to food banks. Farmers in many areas now have rotting food, and are dumping it because they can’t sell it. Many used to sell to restaurant suppliers, and now that most places are closed or the demand is so low that they are unable to offload their product onto the market. Grocery stores have their supply at near max capacity but still run out of room for storage, hence some of the empty shelves we have seen. There is an excess in supply at the source, and yet people are still going without food because of laws imposed by the government. Once again we see the government getting in the way of the free market, and this time it is hitting a lot of people’s bellies.
What is the purposed solution to all this you might ask? The president wants to spend billions buying food directly from the farmers, and then hand it out…. Go ahead, read that again if you want. Of all the solutions for this government caused issue President Trump’s answer is MORE government. No, we are not in the Twilight Zone, we are just seeing how central planners think. They assume they know what is best for all of us when a problem arises that they caused in the first place. How many times have we seen this before?! It seems countless by now, doesn’t it?
A much better solution to this issue though would be working to get rid of these absurd regulations that make it illegal for farmers to sell directly to the people or give to food banks. The crisis we are all living in right now is made much worse by stupid laws that were implemented originally so the government can try to pick winners, and losers. Granted we will be told that it was all in the interest of safety, and that is why the farmers can’t sell to the people. So in the interest of “safety” people are going hungry… great.
We as libertarians know the issues when the government tries to infringe on the market, when the government tries to pick it’s winners, and losers, and when “in the interest of safety” the results always turn out for the worse. If the free market was allowed to function as it should we wouldn’t be seeing food shortages, testing shortages or the shortages of protective gear for medical personal. Sadly though the same song, and dance goes on. Worse yet is that far too many see government as the solution to the issues it created. Our fight is a tough one, but it’s worth it.
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Keep that coffee warm for us
LWS
