Milk Prices Double? Another Scare Tactic To Induce Panic Spending
The New York Time’s webpage title is, “Milk Prices Could Double As Farm Bill Stalls.” The article itself warns of a gallon of milk costing six to eight dollars.
First, of all, that is not going to happen in any long-term way. I don’t care what the cause is, there is no way that milk or other dairy prices can afford to shoot up that high. This is basic economics: If a gallon of milk goes up that high, then no one buys it. If no one buys it, then producers have a perishable good that they will leave them with a 100 percent loss. When facing 100 percent loss, sellers are going to slash prices to get something for their milk rather than simply pouring it out onto the ground.
Secondly, there is a case to be made that American’s consume too much dairy. I normally don’t worry about such dietary advice, but I think it at least means that we could all live without dairy if we had to. In fact, by cutting out dairy altogether, I know that my household budget for other goods and services would see a real increase. Milk is already painfully expensive and if this is what freed my family from the taste, then that might be a good result.
So this isn’t a real crisis, not compared to the economic collapse we are facing because we keep spending. Of course, Democrats are blasting the Republicans for holding up food stamps and pretending that food stamps are to “help” the people. If by “help” you mean, seduce into slavery, then that is true. But, otherwise, the vast majority of the welfare is corporate welfare:
“With the farm bill on the table this year, companies and organizations across the country have pulled out their big guns to lobby on the SNAP program. Seventy-one groups ranging from Wal-Mart Stores to Cornell University to Arch Coal are lobbying on the subject, more than in any other year since 2006, when OpenSecrets.org began keeping data according to issues lobbied. ”
What no one wants to admit is that this “Farm Bill” is really an Agriculture/Food stimulus bill of almost a trillion dollars for the next decade. But Congress has attempted to rig it with an economic explosive to hurt anyone who simply opposes it on principle. The “explosive” is a much worse 1949 law. As the NY Times article explains,
“Without last-minute Congressional action, the government would have to follow an antiquated 1949 farm law that would force Washington to buy milk at wildly inflated prices, creating higher prices in the dairy case… Higher prices would be based on what dairy farm production costs were in 1949, when milk production was almost all done by hand. Because of adjustments for inflation and other technical formulas, the government would be forced by law to buy milk at roughly twice the current market prices to maintain a stable milk market.”
So, by never bothering to simply repeal the 1949 law, it has been used to threaten and scare the public into allowing Congress to spend boatloads of money and debt for farm stimulus. In fact, our entire agricultural industry, rather than being any result of the free market, has always been bloated soviet monster perpetually riding on the backs of the American people.
Here is how a lobbyist for Land O’ Lakes put it:
“’Congress needs to pass a comprehensive farm bill that helps farmers continue to feed the world, keeps food prices affordable and provides farmers some financial stability in the very unpredictable profession of farming,’ said Rebecca Lentz, a company spokeswoman.”
No Rebecca: what we need is for you to work in the same market environment that I work in, without my work taxed to give you “stability.” I’ve wanted stability all my life. The difference is I pray for it and work at it. I don’t make up self-serving lies, and pay off elected criminals, to shake down the rest of the country to give me what I want.
We need this Farm Bill to fail. We need to put the fear of God in farmers (mostly: corporations!) as they see their milk market go through the floor, and then we need to abolish the 1949 piece of Soviet trash posing as an American law. Every bit of it needs to be put out of our misery.
We need freedom, and that means we must halt the government’s practice of loading us down with taxing, spending, and borrowing.
Mark Horne has been studying the intersection of ethics and the economy since high school. He was raised in Liberia, West Africa and Kwajalein, Marshall Islands, as well as on the Atlantic coast of Florida. He graduated from Houghton College in 1989 and from Covenant Theological Seminary in 1998. He was ordained in the Presbyterian Church in America and has pastored churches in Washington state and Oklahoma, as well as serving as an assistant pastor in St. Louis.
Trending Now on Affluent Christian Investor
Sorry. No data so far.
The Affluent Mix
Biden Oblivious To Illegal Immigration Issues... August 2, 2021 | Frank Vernuccio

Rob Arnott On Bubbles, Inflation, And Once-In-A-Generation Investment Opportunit... August 2, 2021 | Jerry Bowyer

The Federal Reserve’s Massive Theft Of Stability... August 2, 2021 | Jim Huntzinger

What To Do About This Difficult Market? August 2, 2021 | David Bahnsen

Letter On The Politicization Of Corporations... July 26, 2021 | Jerry Bowyer

Peak Of The Fake Bull Market July 26, 2021 | Michael Pento

Woodrow Wilson’s Administrative State vs. Gold... July 26, 2021 | Jim Huntzinger

Dividends, Energy, And Crypto July 26, 2021 | David Bahnsen

Whose Side Are You On? July 26, 2021 | Frank Vernuccio

Media, Left Ignore These Dangers July 19, 2021 | Frank Vernuccio

Mark Skousen On FreedomFest And How To Measure The Whole Economy... July 19, 2021 | Jerry Bowyer

Quantifying The Quantitative, Or Making Easy The Easing... July 19, 2021 | David Bahnsen

The Gold Standard Means A Rising Standard Of Living... July 19, 2021 | Jim Huntzinger

Book Review: Brian Domitrovic Reveals The Monetary Genius Of Arthur Laffer... July 19, 2021 | John Tamny

Steve Forbes: Time To Worry About Inflation, Not Hyperinflation... July 12, 2021 | Jerry Bowyer

UFOs Rescue Biden July 12, 2021 | Frank Vernuccio

Read This Classical Economist’s 200 Year Old Warning About Paper Money... July 12, 2021 | Jim Huntzinger

How Central Banks Murdered The Markets July 12, 2021 | Michael Pento

Everything There Is To Know About The Stock Market... July 12, 2021 | David Bahnsen

AT&T CEO: We’re Ill Equipped For Politics, And We’re Spending A Lot Of ... July 6, 2021 | Jerry Bowyer

Internet Bias Distorts National Conversation... July 6, 2021 | Frank Vernuccio

The Halfway Point Of 2021 July 6, 2021 | David Bahnsen

Join the conversation!
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, vulgarity, profanity, all caps, or discourteous behavior. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain a courteous and useful public environment where we can engage in reasonable discourse.