A Washington Post editorial follows up on the series the paper has been running on the fam welfare system and asks a very simple question:
A QUESTION raised by The Post’s recent reports on farm subsidies is this: Why does the nation tolerate this waste? As reporters Gilbert M. Gaul, Dan Morgan and Sarah Cohen explain, the federal government paid out $1.6 million in earthquake compensation to Washington state farmers who hadn’t suffered earthquake damage. It foisted $39 million in storm compensation on bewildered Wisconsin farmers who were unaware that they’d suffered any loss. And it gave $400 million worth of powdered milk, which it had bought to support milk prices, to supposedly drought-stricken ranchers — only to find that ranchers and middlemen sold the milk back onto the world market, driving milk prices down again while clearing a fast profit.
Public choice economists have been asking this question for years, and the answer is really quite simple. The Post puts it well:
The answer is that the taxpaying majority doesn’t care, not least because it is oblivious
As the public choice school teaches, voters have no incentive to be involved in the day-to-day operations of government or the impact of individual government programs. One person’s vote rarely decides and election, and one person’s phone call to a Congressman has minimal impact on that representatives vote on a particular vote. Special interest groups such as farmers and ranchers, however, have many incentives to be well-informed about, and involved in, government policies that effect their business. They are well organized and are the difference between winning and losing for many Congressman and Senators in the West and Southwest. Even though they are a minority, they are able to get what they want out of government because most voters are, quite honestly, not even noticing that their pockets are being picked.
So what’s he solution ? Stop handing out the welfare. Close the purse strings. We will have things like the farm welfare system as long as we have a government that hands out money that doesn’t belong to it.
Related Posts:
Time To End Farm Welfare?.Again
More On The Absurd Farm Welfare System
Maybe They Send Flood Aid To The Desert
Politics And Welfare. Perfect Together.
Farm Welfare: Its Not Just Welfare, Its Pork
Farm Welfare: Gaming The System
