*** Proving us right before we even made our argument, last week, the US Senate approved the latest farm bill by the largest margin since 1973. The bill got widespread, bi-partisan collusion for the very reason that dooms the US economy – it stifles capitalism. There is something in the farm bill for almost every scoundrel and bounder in the country. Poor people get more free food. Rich people get more subsidies. There was talk of restricting the payouts to people with incomes of $200,000 or less…but in the end, the legislation allows people with incomes up to $1.25 million to feed at the public trough. The total cost of the bill is $307 billion over five years – with free money to grain farmers, dairymen, fruit growers, school lunch programs, food stamps, land conservation, rural development, and every other special interest whose lobbyists could suborn and pervert the lawmaking process. There are said to be twice as many lobbyists in Washington than there were 5 years ago; the trough has been extended proportionately.

Did anyone…anywhere…mention that capitalism could be relied up to sort out the agricultural sector? Did anyone recall that a free market – with prices set by willing producers and consumers – works more efficiently than one that is rigged by lawmakers? Did anyone even notice that the farming industry has been corrupted by government money…or ask where the money would come from to corrupt it even more? Apparently not. Apparently, Americans don’t think they can trust free enterprise to feed them. They think every bid needs to be checked with a bureaucrat and every ask should be cleared by a Senate committee.

But that’s where we are, dear reader, circa 2008…in the greatest show on earth.

At every interval the clowns rush in.

Which takes us back to where we began – looking at the naked fat lady on the couch.

This from Fred Sheehan:

“It is said that artists speak for the ages. In 1951, Pablo Picasso described the end of our age when interviewed by Giovanni Papini: “From the moment that art ceases to be the nourishment of the best brains, the artist can use all the tricks of the intellectual charlatan. The refined people, the rich ones and the professional layabouts, only want what is sensational or scandalous in modern art. And since the days of cubism I have fed these boys what they wanted and pacified the critics with all the idiotic ideas that went through my head. Whilst I amused myself with all these pranks, I became famous and very rich. I am just a public clown, a fairground barker.” The quotation is disputed. Whatever he said, Picasso’s reputation suffered no harm when this confession was published.”

Abramovich’s reputation suffered no harm when he laid out more than $33 million for the fat lady – more than had ever been paid for any work by a living artist.

The painting “Benefits Supervisor Sleeping,” was done in 1995. It shows a woman who works for government; her job is handing out money to people who never earned it. The woman is still alive too. She woke up last week and wondered how come she got paid only a few sheckels for posing for such a famous and valuable painting. Looks like she needs a lobbyist.

Source: Newer Capitalism is Better Capitalism

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