Food Chain Radio Show #1233

Michael Olson, Author & Urban Farming Agriculturalist

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Up Against Goliath II: The Rules

Guest: Erica Smith, Senior Attorney, Institute for Justice

It seemed to me like big business had it all figured out.

What I saw during the Covid-19 pandemic panic was that big business was open for business, while most every small business was forced to close their doors.

Michael Olson Food Chain Radio – Goliath Rules – How does big business make its own rules and regulations?

I saw this when I went to my favorite local garden store at the peak of the panic to buy some plants for the garden. The store was locked up and shut down. I then went to my second favorite local garden store and found it, too, to be locked up and shut down. “No problem!” I was told, “The Big Box store is open, but you will have to stand in line and wait your turn.”

When I tell friends and associates what I believe I have seen, many of them roll their eyes and back away. Fine! But the fact is, big business does have many ways to fight off their small business competitors.

To describe some of those ways, Food Chain Radio is offering up a series of three episodes we call, “Up Against Goliath.” In our last episode we discussed how big business fights with the artful use of the bribe. Today’s episode is called, “The Rules,” because one of the most pernicious ways big business fights off little businesses is through the rules and regulations promulgated by bureaucracies.

For a perfect example, look to the great state of North Dakota, where citizens decided that they wanted the right to buy and sell food from each other. You sell me a loaf of freshly baked bread, I’ll sell you some freshly churned butter. We will then break bread together.

When the politicians of the North Dakota heard their citizens crying out for food freedom, they passed a cottage food bill granting them that freedom. But then North Dakota’s food bureaucracy stepped in and took that food freedom away. And that leads us to ask, how does big business make its own rules and regulations?

Leave a comment below: Do you believe big business makes its own rules?

Tune in here, for the syndicated the Michael Olson Food Chain Radio Show #1233 June 13, 2020 Saturday 9AM Pacific