Say "cheese!"
For the archives, let's take a metaphorical snapshot of Our Glorious Leaders helping We The Proles err I mean We The People.
What exactly is the job of an elected politician? Uphold and defend the constitution? Nahhh. Preserve and protect the rights and liberties of the citizens? Nahhh. Defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic? Nahhh.
Most politicians have a perverted and pernicious view of their job: to solve civilization's problems (as they define the problems).
Case in point: taxpayer subsidies for dairy farmers.
Problem #1: Those "poor" dairy farmers are having a rough time of it this year. The market is oversupplied so prices are down.
Problem #2: Those poor, poor people on food stamps and other forms of taxpayer-paid charity need more cheese..
Problem #3: Those poor politicians need more re-election campaign funding.
Problem #4: Those poor government bureaucrats need something to do to at least superficially justify their existence.
Over a three-martini lunch with lobbyists, it happens. Click! The light bulb goes off in the minds of politicians or their legions of minions. Let's kill four birds with one stone! Let's tax the population at large, skim a huge chunk right off the top to take care of our friends the bureaucrats, buy up the surplus cheese to pay back our friends the dairy farmers for their campaign contributions, and give free cheese to a select group of citizens to buy their votes. Problems solved!
It's a grand slam, a win-win-win-win solution, right?
NOT!
Never mind that the average working family is stuck in an economic rut and needs to keep every penny it can hold onto.
Never mind that the nostalgic view of small, family run dairy farms with Fred and Martha getting up at 4:00 AM to milk Bessie and Elsie went out the window with Oliver and Lisa.
Never mind that cows emit more methane per minute than Al Gore's private jet emits carbon while flying to a climate change conference in Paris.
Never mind that the vast majority of US government agencies are bloated with a bumper crop of waste, fraud and abuse and that the vast majority of bureaucrats are already overpaid and under-worked
Never mind that a good percentage of all that cheese will sit in a warehouse for years and rot before it gets consumed.
Never mind that mass-produced and commercially processed cheese isn't all that good for humans to consume in large quantities.
US Takes a Bite From Cheese Mountain With $20 Million Stockpile Purchase
https://www.newsmax.com/Finance/StreetTalk/cheese-farmer-dairy-milk/2016/08/24/id/744965/
Never mind.