When I was kid growing up in the 1960’s we moved to Norway for my dad’s military duty. My parents were from Alabama, and were Conservatives politically. Norway was considered a Socialist country, and of course my parents disapproved of Socialism. Nevertheless, there were some things the Norwegians did that my parents approved of, or at least conceded were well-intentioned. There was one policy in particular my mom liked. The Norwegian government subsidized the price of milk, meat, and vegetables to keep their prices artificially low. This was designed to benefit poor people so that even the poorest could afford a healthy diet. This policy also had some nice side benefits – poor people didn’t risk public shaming by being seen using the equivalent of Food Stamps, and middle class and rich people paid the same low prices for these items, eliminating political backlash.
From Norway we moved back to my parent’s home state of Alabama. At that time Alabama had a state agency called the Alabama Milk Control Board. I remember being around twelve or thirteen at the time and when I first heard about it I thought it was designed to keep the price of milk low, just like the Norwegians. I listened to a news article about the board with interest, wanting to learn more about it.
Turns out that wasn’t what the Milk Control Board was all about. It was run by representatives of the dairy industry and its sole purpose was to keep the price of milk as high as possible. There was no maximum price of milk. If a grocery store could charge $20 a gallon for milk right after a hurricane, more power to them. Capitalism at its finest. Conversely, there was also a minimum price of milk below which it was illegal for a store to charge. And the Milk Control Board could levy fines against retailers who charged too low a price for milk!
You cannot imagine the outrage I felt as a young man when I learned of this. Rich dairymen were victimizing poor people, price gouging them on an essential commodity like milk. And they had even enlisted the State government to assist them in this shakedown.
I wish I could say the Alabama Milk Control Board was a one-off, but it wasn’t. Soon after I learned about the Milk Control Board, an association representing used car dealers wanted the State Legislature to pass a bill making it legal to roll back the odometers on used cars. Yep, you read that right. They wanted to legalize fraud. And the proposed bill actually received a favorable review out of committee and got a floor vote scheduled. Fortunately the bill was voted down. Legalizing such outright fraud was a bridge too far for even the Alabama Legislature, but the very fact such an outrageous bill could even be considered was shocking in and of itself. It is not for nothing that many people in Alabama say “No man’s life or property is safe when the Legislature is in session”.
Ever since then I have been suspicious of the motives of rich people, particularly rich people in politics. I don’t want the government that is supposed to protect me being used to help rich people shake me down. And no, I didn’t become a Liberal because of what I saw in Norway – it was what I saw in Alabama that did that.