Since it is corn harvest, let’s discuss the price and supply of corn. If you are a corn-onthe-
cob connoisseur you have three sources to support your habit: One, grow it yourself.
Two, purchase it from farmer’s markets. Or three, purchase it from a retail grocery store.
During this harvest time of year, supply is plentiful and prices are very reasonable. In
February, fresh corn-on-the-cob must be shipped from Mexico, so it is of limited supply
and is priced accordingly. This is a perfectly understandable demonstration of the law of
supply and demand; now watch me screw it up with government intervention.

Under the misrepresentation of being charitable, imagine a program where we use tax
dollars to provide free corn to two specific populations: The indigent and retirees over 65
years of age. As the years pass, as with all freebies, two things happen: First, those
receiving the free corn become dependent on free corn, so they idle their backyard
gardens. Second, the expense to distribute free corn is higher than charitable politicians
anticipated, so costs skyrocket.

To cut program expenses, bureaucrats rule they will pay no more than 10 cents per ear,
and farmers receiving federal subsidy payments must sell their corn at this designated
price. Since it costs 20 cents to produce an ear of corn, and farmers can only collect to 10
cents from the government, they shift the cost of the other 10 pennies to the price of corn
at the roadside stand. Thus non-program consumers pay 30 cents per ear of corn along
the highway. Are you with me?

Forty-four years pass and roadside corn has inflated to $19 dollars per ear. The farmer
still only gets one dime per ear for government corn, but $19 dollar corn is a great burden
for consumers not receiving the freebie. “This needs fixed,” they demand.

The politicians, who purchase votes with free corn, claim a crisis exists and the only
possible solution is to give everyone universal free corn. Of course the farmer will still
get ten cents per ear and the government will now dictate where they will live and what
they will produce.

With incentive gone, farmers sit on the sofa and watch Oprah rather than irrigate when
it’s so dang hot. Corn yields plummet. Food becomes scarce so it is rationed to subjects
deemed most useful to society. Bureaucrats decide the obese, aged, and misfits will
receive counseling and pain killers rather than corn. There isn’t enough for everyone.
Are you making the connection? The constitutional right for universal free corn simply
doesn’t exist and it would be catastrophic for socialist politicians to claim that it does.
This is entirely true as well for universal free health care. The extreme expense for
today’s health care was created by government manipulation of the market with Medicare
and Medicaid. It will not be solved by even more government manipulation.

Throughout our nation’s 233 year history there has been two types of people: Those who
demand their needs be met by government programs and those who demand the
government leave them alone. Our founding fathers, obviously in the second category,
feared oppressive government and every document they created served to limit
government’s reach. Unfortunately, today’s leaders in Washington DC are in the first
category and they methodically ignore those founding documents limiting government.
Whether titled socialism, liberalism, or being progressive matters not; the common thread
is the populace exchanges freedom for government security.

Just like in 1776, a new generation of patriots will come forth and endure great hardship
freeing America from an oppressive government. The resurgence of tea-parties
exemplifies this awakening of a sleeping giant. Perhaps we were late in recognizing how
far our nation had slipped into socialism, but we have risen and we are ready for a fight.
Liberty is not only a just cause, it is the only cause. God granted this nation our freedom;
it is up to us to get it back. To do anything less would be to hold Him in contempt.