Mesogen
07-07-2007, 08:44 PM
There are some things that go on in this world that really make you just scratch your head.
I came across this post at Dispatches from the Culture Wars, a pretty decent blog by Ed Brayton.
http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2007/07/sandefur_on_raisin_madness_tak.php
that links to this pdf article
http://sandefur.typepad.com/raisins.pdf
Many Americans would be shocked to learn that the federal government confiscates a quarter--or even half--of the entire California raisin crop every year. But they would be even more shocked to learn the reason for this bizarre policy: federal bureaucrats seize these raisins in order to make food more expensive.
Huh? Apparently it's a leftover from the New Deal.
The last part of the conclusion is actually pretty maddenning:
Such laws, Powell concludes, are “the most
blatant type of interference with U.S. agricultural markets, a
throwback to medieval times when guilds determined who
could work in various trades, how much they could charge,
and how much they could produce.” Farmers are essentially
prohibited from going outside of the federally-created raisin
cartel, because they are subjected to regulations any time they
sell raisins in “interstate commerce”—meaning any commerce
at all. Yet when they seek just compensation for the property
that the government takes from them, they are told that the
system is essentially voluntary, that they chose to participate in
it, and that they can be required to pay a “toll” for the privilege
of selling the raisins they have produced through their own
labor and ingenuity.
I came across this post at Dispatches from the Culture Wars, a pretty decent blog by Ed Brayton.
http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2007/07/sandefur_on_raisin_madness_tak.php
that links to this pdf article
http://sandefur.typepad.com/raisins.pdf
Many Americans would be shocked to learn that the federal government confiscates a quarter--or even half--of the entire California raisin crop every year. But they would be even more shocked to learn the reason for this bizarre policy: federal bureaucrats seize these raisins in order to make food more expensive.
Huh? Apparently it's a leftover from the New Deal.
The last part of the conclusion is actually pretty maddenning:
Such laws, Powell concludes, are “the most
blatant type of interference with U.S. agricultural markets, a
throwback to medieval times when guilds determined who
could work in various trades, how much they could charge,
and how much they could produce.” Farmers are essentially
prohibited from going outside of the federally-created raisin
cartel, because they are subjected to regulations any time they
sell raisins in “interstate commerce”—meaning any commerce
at all. Yet when they seek just compensation for the property
that the government takes from them, they are told that the
system is essentially voluntary, that they chose to participate in
it, and that they can be required to pay a “toll” for the privilege
of selling the raisins they have produced through their own
labor and ingenuity.