Obnoxious Dairy Board Nanny State PING!
Obnoxious Dairy Board Nanny State PING!
I still do not understand why peasants put up with this crap
Wow! I am glad I switched to beer.
Bob Odom gave us the parting gift of a .10c dairy container tax.
A +.10c per container tax made the price jump $1.00!
Too many fingers, not enough pies!
This is a legend of success and plunder
And a man, Tom Smith, who squelched world
hunger.
Now, Smith, an inventor, had specialized
In toys. So, people were surprised
When they found that he instead
Of making toys, was BAKING BREAD!
The way to make bread he'd conceived
Cost less than people could believe.
And not just make it! This device
Could, in addition, wrap and slice!
The price per loaf, one loaf or many:
The miniscule sum of under a penny.
Can you imagine what this meant?
Can you comprehend the consequent?
The first time yet the world well fed!
And all because of Tom Smith's bread.
A citation from the President
For Smith's amazing bread.
This and other honors too
Were heaped upon his head.
But isn't it a wondrous thing
How quickly fame is flown?
Smith, the hero of today
Tomorrow, scarcely known.
Yes, the fickle years passed by;
Smith was a millionaire,
But Smith himself was now forgot
Though bread was everywhere.
People, asked from where it came,
Would very seldom know.
They would simply eat and ask,
"Was not it always so?"
However, Smith cared not a bit,
For millions ate his bread,
And "Everything is fine," thought he,
"I am rich and they are fed!"
Everything was fine, he thought?
He reckoned not with fate.
Note the sequence of events
Starting on the date
On which the business tax went up.
Then, to a slight extent,
The price on every loaf rose too:
Up to one full cent!
"What's going on?" the public cried,
"He's guilty of pure plunder.
He has no right to get so rich
On other people's hunger!"
(A prize cartoon depicted Smith
With fat and drooping jowls
Snatching bread from hungry babes
Indifferent to their howls!)
Well, since the Public does come first,
It could not be denied
That in matters such as this,
The Public must decide.
So, antitrust now took a hand.
Of course, it was appalled
At what it found was going on.
The "bread trust," it was called.
Now this was getting serious.
So Smith felt that he must
Have a friendly interview
With the men in antitrust.
So, hat in hand, he went to them.
They'd surely been misled;
No rule of law had he defied.
But then their lawyer said:
The rule of law, in complex times,
Has proved itself deficient.
We much prefer the rule of men!
It's vastly more efficient.
Now, let me state the present rules.
The lawyer then went on,
These very simpIe guidelines
You can rely upon:
You're gouging on your prices if
You charge more than the rest.
But it's unfair competition
If you think you can charge less.
A second point that we would make
To help avoid confusion:
Don't try to charge the same amount:
That would be collusion!
You must compete. But not too much,
For if you do, you see,
Then the market would be yours
And that's monopoly!"
Price too high? Or price too low?
Now, which charge did they make?
Well, they weren't loath to charging both
With Public Good at stake!
In fact, they went one better
They charged "monopoly!"
No muss, no fuss, oh woe is us,
Egad, they charged all three!
"Five years in jail," the judge then said.
"You're lucky it's not worse.
Robber Barons must be taught
Society Comes First!"
Now, bread is baked by government.
And as might be expected,
Everything is well controlled;
The public well protected.
True, loaves cost a dollar each.
But our leaders do their best.
The selling price is half a cent.
(Taxes pay the rest!)
I'm tired of the GOP playing the same game as Dems. No one truly stops the massive machine of overpaid underlings that are nothing but statist and overlords.
Holy moley bat man, I can buy whole milk all day long, every day for $2.98 a gallon.
I live in La. and I know we are not much of a dairy state but our milk prices are ridiculous. Hopefully this will get enough exposure so that changes will be made. It has worked in the past and Bobby Jindal likes to be a man of the people.
Where’s the obligatory ‘women and children hurt most’, Ms. Millhillon? We both know you’d throw that in if Bush were President.
Milk is a necessary part of a healthy diet, especially for children, if I’m not mistaken.
The nanny-state busybodies are royally scrooing those that can barely make ends meet. Too bad Michelle doesn’t see fit to educate the masses.
Allowing a supermarket to sell milk below cost could drive competitors out of business, allowing the store to then increase the price of milk, he said.
Basic Econ 101! How can people be so utterly stupid? Government involvement never lowers prices. Milk can easily be found for less than $3 in the D.C. metro area, not exactly an area of low-cost living.
If a store drives out competition and then raises the price, that invites the return of competition with lower prices. Yes, there are other factors with economies of scale, etc., but the principles are obviously sound. Price controls do not keep prices down!
ANYTIME the Govt gets involved the results are the same...
Most Regulations are simply a Tax and Infringement of Liberty.
Since Obamacare passed I ignore any Law that I can at every opportunity that I can think of, sometimes I create opportunities just to cheer myself up. Problem with that is that now not doing anything is against the Law. Hey I can do that too!
Then why am I so depressed?
TT
Jeez Louise! I don’t pay that much for a gallon (two cartons) of half ‘n half.
If a store wants to ‘loss leader’ a product they should be able to - no matter what the product.
There are many years during Thanksgiving where turkey prices are very high, there are stores that will sell turkeys for under their cost from distributors - it’s their loss leader price to get customers to hopefully shop the rest of the store for all their holiday needs.
Uh, no, it's when you poke your nose into things you don't understand and which are none of your business that it becomes a problem. Are they allowed to buy advertising? That's what they're doing by selling one or two products below their cost. They're doing their own advertising in house, and in a way that benefits the consumer instead of clogging his airwaves or mailbox.
Stores also sell milk and other perishables at lower prices when they're still good but nearing the point at which they'll have to be pulled from the shelves. If they can recover what they paid, or even most of it, that's a victory from their point of view.
If milk was the only product they sold, and they were continuously selling it at a loss, you might have reason to suspect they had some evil scheme working, but that's clearly not the case, you moron. Leave them alone!