Saving Ourselves From Ourselves

Suppose you are having a party this holiday season, a BIG party. You usually have a small get together for a few friends every year, but this one is going to be special. You’ve been planning it for weeks and now it’s time to buy all of the supplies. You arrange for some close friends to help with the preparations, visit the local warehouse club for supplies, stop by the grocery store, and finally you run by the liquor store to purchase the libations.

As you and the store proprietor go over your list, you finally come to the final item, Champaign, and he tells you that he doesn’t have any—he’s already sold out. It seems that all he originally had for sale was domestic Champaign and because of recent diplomatic conflicts, he doesn’t have any imported Champaign.

So what do you do now? After calling around, you finally locate someone who says that they might be able to help you with your purchase and you arrange to stop by the next day to discuss delivery. You learn that the “distributor” can supply you with four cases of fine Champaign imported from France. The deal is contingent on you paying $70 cash per bottle, plus tax, for Champaign that would normally cost $35 per bottle. After thinking about it for a minute, you drive to the ATM and return with the $1700 needed for your purchase. It’s an extra expense, but you head home confident that your party will be a success and your guests will appreciate your efforts.

The next day there is an unexpected knock on your front door and when you answer you find a police officer and a government agent requesting to come inside and ask you a few questions. It seems that current law prohibits you from buying and drinking Champaign made outside the United States. After a few minutes of conversation, you watch their truck drive away with your hard won party drinks—and you get no refund.

Now that you have taken the time and patience to read through the above story I ask you the following question. What business is it of the imperial Federal Government of the United States what I choose to purchase and drink in the privacy of my own home, as long as all of the taxes are paid and I willing to pay the asking price? Why does it matter to the bureaucrats where my beverage is made?

Unfortunately, the government has gotten into the business of regulating a vast portion of our lives including the products which we are “allowed” to purchase, usually under the guise of assuring quality and safety. However, based on a number of cars I’ve owned over the past thirty years, government involvement rarely assures quality and with the Fen Phen debacle and the recent recall of the drug Vioxx, their promise of protecting our safety with regulation is certainly suspect.

USA Today printed a story yesterday about the federal government riding to our rescue again in the recent flue vaccine shortage. I think that you’ll agree that we can all sleep better tonight as a result of their efforts…NOT!

“Thousands of doses of flu vaccine smuggled from France through Saudi Arabia were destined for black-market sales in New Jersey, federal officials said Tuesday.

The smuggling scheme is the latest, and perhaps boldest, criminal act to arise during the nation's unprecedented flu vaccine shortage. As health officials dole out a limited supply of vaccine, police are dealing with price gougers and vaccine thieves.”

Can you believe this situation? As I stated in my earlier post, Hillarycare Preview, the imperial federal government is already responsible for the flue vaccine shortage in the first place. If it hadn’t been for their intervention in the vaccine market in the 1990’s, chances are that everyone that wanted a flue vaccine shot today could get one for a modest cost. But nooooo, a “modest cost” wasn’t good enough for the bureaucrats, it had to be sold at prices below production costs or given away for free and as a result the vaccine manufacturers ran for the hills looking for more profitable enterprises.

What the government has done is step into the free market, screw around with the basic formulas of supply and demand that normally dictate product pricing and availability, and now they are criminalizing the actions of those who seek to fill the vacuum that developed in the wake of their efforts.

You can rest easy now ladies and Gentlemen, thanks to the diligent efforts of our law enforcement and US Customs officials, another 8,000 doses of non-approved flue vaccine has been taken off of America’s streets and placed into the dumpsters where it belongs. A few men won’t run the risk of experiencing unnatural cravings for brie cheese as a result of taking the vaccine only approved for French consumption. Untold numbers of American women are saved the torture of beginning to not shave the hair on their legs and in their armpits as a result of ingesting the French poison.

Thank God for our all knowing government.