Got lobbyists?
The Washington Post has a long but fascinating article that illustrates how the system of legalized bribery we call "campaign finance" works using, of all things, the tale of how one individual milk producer was targeted for special legislation and penalized.
There's really no decent way to excerpt it, but if you have time it's well worth the read. Imagine this kind of conduct spread over multiple industries, and it should be clear to any sentient person that talk about "free markets" is pretty much nothing more than talk.
Sure, our system often allows a good deal of competition based on supply and demand to occur, but it also involves tremendous government subsidies, back room dealing and favoritism. And when the people who are supposed to be doing the regulating get in bed with industry, the losers, as always, are the regular citizens.
Agriculture policy in particular has been allowed to become a horror show. Policies and systems designed for Depression-era farmers are now used to enrich giant agri-business corporations, as the Post story clearly shows. Plus a system that encourages the use of high-fructose corn syrup in seemingly everything is not exactly smart health policy.
The article could be construed as being somewhat unfavorable to Harry Reid, but in my view he was simply playing the game as it exists and looking out for his state. In the big picture, as time goes on, Democrats will need to start work on reforming things like this. But that's a luxury we may not be able to afford politically any time soon, as you can bet your bippy that Big Agra won't take kindly to their gravy train being examined.
There's really no decent way to excerpt it, but if you have time it's well worth the read. Imagine this kind of conduct spread over multiple industries, and it should be clear to any sentient person that talk about "free markets" is pretty much nothing more than talk.
Sure, our system often allows a good deal of competition based on supply and demand to occur, but it also involves tremendous government subsidies, back room dealing and favoritism. And when the people who are supposed to be doing the regulating get in bed with industry, the losers, as always, are the regular citizens.
Agriculture policy in particular has been allowed to become a horror show. Policies and systems designed for Depression-era farmers are now used to enrich giant agri-business corporations, as the Post story clearly shows. Plus a system that encourages the use of high-fructose corn syrup in seemingly everything is not exactly smart health policy.
The article could be construed as being somewhat unfavorable to Harry Reid, but in my view he was simply playing the game as it exists and looking out for his state. In the big picture, as time goes on, Democrats will need to start work on reforming things like this. But that's a luxury we may not be able to afford politically any time soon, as you can bet your bippy that Big Agra won't take kindly to their gravy train being examined.
