by the Way . . .

Thanks to the US farm subsidy program, our corn production is again the envy of the world. A brief history of the program will show how important intelligent design can be as a program evolves. Full disclosure, I have a farm and benefit from these programs, but not nearly as much as I should.

Back some years you were paid not to produce. This changed to paying you whether you produced or not. Finally we got to paying you according to the acres you have in production, based on what you should have produced at the price you should have received. Not only that, but you aren't paid directly any more, you are just loaned money at the beginning of the season, and later told you don't have to pay it back. This apparently gives the government a tax deduction, reducing the cost of the program. Several large accounting firms are now saying that the farmer, as long as he objects to the program and continues to intend to pay it back, doesn't have to pay taxes on it either. It is a win win, and it is easy to see why some commentators say that we have reached the pinnacle, that evolution is dead.

There are a few problems of course. Some of the mountains of corn can't be covered with tarps because there is nothing to attach them to. If it rains, the value of the corn may decrease 30%. How that will affect the "price" of the unsold corn is not clear. Also, there are all those complaints from foreigners. They don't have piles of corn because where they are people eat it all. Foreigners are very slow learners. Way back when, Adam Smith demonstrated that free markets just don't produce surpluses. He was talking about pins, not corn, but the principle is the same. We could have a surplus of pins too, if we could get the government involved.