The public has soured on bailouts for industries that have made the wrong decisions for years. With the billions it doled out to the financial services and auto industries, the federal government has finally imposed some requirements, modest though they may be, on the companies that received vast sums of taxpayers’ funds. The public no longer wants the combination of financial bailouts and government deregulation. The industries must observe some standards and have some accountability, so that mistakes are not repeated again and again, and taxpayers can feel like the industries are not getting a complete free ride.
But the Congress and the U.S. Department of Agriculture never seem to have gotten the memo when it comes to Big Agribusiness, and especially the pork industry.
Big Pork at the Government Trough—Again
The Grumpy Vegan deliberately put a provocative title to this post which quotes from Wayne Pacelle’s excellent article. The title isn’t Wayne’s; it’s mine. Wayne may or may not agree with it. Just want to make that clear. Nonetheless, capitalists call government tax subsidies good business practice whereas they declare government benefits to the poor as socialism.
