Raisin farmers are facing a $650,000 penalty unless they hand over almost half of their crop of raisin to their Lord Seigneurs the Federal Government.
“The court agreed to address the constitutionality of a “reserve tonnage” program overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture under a law dating from 1937, near the end of the Great Depression.”
Aside from the wisdom of defending a program that originated from the paragon of regulatory sanity [/sarcasm]. The main problem, is that this is a violation of the 5th Amendment which requires “just compensation” for takings:
“The federal government, without providing the just compensation required by the Fifth Amendment, extracts title to a hefty portion of a farmer’s annual raisin crop as a condition for giving the farmer permission to sell the remainder of his crop on the market,” attorney Michael W. McConnell, a former federal appellate judge, wrote in a brief for Fresno-area farmers Marvin and Laura Horne”
Ultimately, this is but an obvert example of the “New Feudalism” wherein toiling masses are required to feed the Leviathan, only to have their productivity redistributed in accordance to the precepts of “justice” and “equality,” in return for the handouts and beneficence of the state, leaving those that toil only marginally better than those who kick back and suck on the government’s teat.
The Progressive Left loves small businesses… just as long as they stay small. Such levies effectively can keep millions down. The elite gladly pay this and more in order to keep the hoi polloi down and thus dependant: The elite can hand over so much and more and still stay elite either from their massive wealth or largess from others wealth, while keeping everyone else poor, and thus dependent. The elite, perhaps, delude themselves into thinking that only the few can be trusted to be wealthy, and that they must shower down upon the masses their benevolence to their beloved “people”; this not-so-charming fiction results in stopping the non-elite from succeeding due to the belief that without the guidance of the elite, and the state, the rabble will just mess things up.
Ah, well, here is some raisin-esque mood music, Grapevine edition:
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