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— Bharat Ramamurti (@BharatRamamurti) December 10, 2021
This isn’t caused by supply chain shortages, it’s caused by pure greed operating through an oligopoly which is sure that governments won’t stop them.
When we let insulin prices go up to hundreds of dollars for a vial that costs under $4 to produce, something we knew would kill a ton of people, when we let them raise prices on a bevy of drugs which cost almost nothing to produce, we let every businessman know that, no matter what the consequences, price-gouging was A-OK. If it’s okay to kill sick people with price gouging, what’s off the table?
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The solution to this is to break up the oligopolies and to charge executives with conspiracies under RICO, which allows all their money to be removed as the product of a crime and forces them to use public defenders. (If it’s okay to do this to serial killers, who kill a lot less people than most oligopolists, then I don’t see why the real criminals should be spared).
As I’ve written in the past, modern capitalism is simply predators feasting on herd animals.
Our era is built on three ideological assertions:
- There is no such thing as society.
- Greed is good.
- There is no alternative (TINA).
Whatever makes a profit, according to this assertion, is good. There is no society, and, therefore, no social goals. There are only competing people and whatever they get is fair. And this is the only way to run society; there is no alternative.
Your lords and masters, for that is how they see themselves, hurt, impoverish, and kill you for money they don’t even need. You are the sheep, and they are the herders, and the cops are the sheepdogs, just like the cops say.
They have even less regard for you than most farmers, though, since they figure there are more of you than they need, and thus, they see no need to care for you the way a good farmer cares for his animals until he kills them for food.
Remember, everything evil they do and are rewarded for simply leads to the question, “What else can we do to make even more money?”
Until the consequence of them hurting and killing “sheep” is that they start dying, or have something worse than dying happen to them (time in ultra-max’s counts), they’re going to kill and hurt more and more, because they are rewarded for it, and most of them get off on it.
someofparts
A close friend of mine who gets his weekly food from a local Episcopalian food bank gets more free food than he can consume and gives me more food than I can consume. There is so much that both of us still have to throw out a lot. This includes plenty of meat. This afternoon when I put out the trash, I will be chucking out more than $25 worth of frozen chicken breasts because I don’t have enough room in my freezer for all the free beef, pork and chicken I can get each week if I want it.
Ché Pasa
Is there any oligarchic enterprise that has not seen significantly increased profits during the pandemic? Asking for a friend.
different clue
@someofparts,
If time allows, is there a way to can-jar some of that meat? Or tear it/ cut it into thin strips and turn it into long-lasting storable jerkey?
Or yet other people to give your surplus to on down the line?
If not, then not . . . and time may not permit. Just a thought . . .
Astrid
Someofparts, is buying a small chest freezer an option for either of your current living situations? I bought my current 7 cubic footer for less than $200 and it looks like new ones should be available for under $250 and you might be able to find cheaper ones used. While this is a significant expenditure for a tight budget, it might be worthwhile to build in more resiliency and store food against future shortages.
Another possible option with excess meats is to make jerky. Cut them up and marinate with soy sauce, sugar, pepper, and liquid smoke if you have it. Dry at 150 F in your oven. Homemade tend to be tastier than anything available commercially.
Jan Wiklund
We shouldn’t talk about “greed”. That is a bourgeois moralist approach. A capitalist that doesn’t take as much as s/he can will simply lose in the competition game.
We should instead blame ourselves for inability to take a bigger slice through industrial action, or political pressure, or what not.
And there is a very strong reason why we should think in that way instead: blaming others is to put oneself in the role of the victim – which is de-powering.
someofparts
I’m going to start passing along the food to neighbors. Seems like this would be helpful to people with children to feed. Meats aren’t the only thing my friend gets. There are veggies, bread, pasta, peanut butter – all kinds of good stuff.
Thanks for all the ideas about what to do with the extra.