A couple of days ago, a bill was pushed through the U.S. Senate that would make it impossible for anyone to get into the food business without incurring costs so staggering that few new entries could afford to get into the food business. The bill is sponsored by same companies whose names we already see on packages that line and fill supermarket shelves. They don’t want any new competition, so they have made enough “contributions” to ensure that enough Senators will vote in favor of their bill.
Most food companies have highly automated production facilities. As they automated, they did not decrease prices, but increased profits. Some of those profits are being used to slide this, and other favorable legislation, through the necessary law-making bodies. One reason is that now, the expensive automation that they use is widely available at affordable prices. So, rather than face honest competition, they pass laws to keep competitors from competing with them. As usual, they say that they are not motivated by huge profits, but by “consumer safety”.
Amazingly, in the past few days, we’ve heard comparatively nothing about this huge bill that guarantees higher costs for everything we eat. Instead, both the state-run media and the increasingly state-controlled blogosphere have suddenly been filled with horror stories about air travelers being abused by the TSA.
Like a pack of obedient hounds, the state-run media has been made to turn away from the scent of the real story and follow a red herring. As they do so, they will compound the lie by telling us that they are proud of “getting at the truth about the TSA.”
When the Senate’s bill that will end up gouging us for food passes, the wave of outrage that was carefully directed at the TSA will magically disappear. The state-run media will begin to say, “Well, what else can they do but pat-down passengers. It’s is their job to keep us safe.” After this “embarrassment”, the TSA funding will be increased to facilitate dealing with the “important customer concerns” in which they’ll pretend, for a short time, to be interested. It will be repeatedly stated that “We’re going to run this like a business, and be sure that those who use our services as as inconvenienced as little as possible. We do care. After all, we’re Americans, too.”
As this drivel is spewed into our minds, enough of us will all nod wisely, satisfied that the vast bureaucracy has a heart, after all, and the induced outrage will quickly disappear. “Guess we showed them.”, many will say, thinking that their opinion would actually mean anything to a huge, powerful Federal bureaucracy. That is, of course, what people in a democracy are meant to think, that someone cares about them, their thoughts, and their opinions. The state-run media excels at providing that ongoing deception.
Many Americans will enjoy thinking exactly those thoughts about how they helped “tame the TSA” while eating a snack that their self-satisfaction keeps them from realizing now costs twenty percent more than it used to.
