Make America Contemptible Again

In January, I bought a box of masks at Walmart.  The box cost $4.79.  After that, there was a shortage of masks and no boxes at all.  Then, three days ago, a fresh supply of masks had arrived.  They were prominently displayed, at $17.99.

Ah yes... Our Free Market at Work!

At the same time, our state (finally) passed a requirement that everyone where a mask "when outside."  Our wonderful government went even further.  For those who could not afford a mask, they could apply for MASK ASSISTANCE.

All they have to do, after finding which agency took care of this, and standing in line for six hours, is fill out a six page

 PROOF OF NEEDFULNESS 

application, detailing just how poor, wretched, and lacking in even a decent amount of minimal funds, they were.   After sufficiently groveling and humiliating themselves and proving to the welfare office that, no, there wasn't an extra nickel being hid under some cushion -- God forbid! -- they might qualify for some sort of voucher they could use to buy masks while at the same time letting everyone in line know that they were too poor and wretched and forsaken by fortune to afford a mask on their own.

NEVER PASS UP AN OPPORTUNITY TO HUMILIATE "THE LESS FORTUNATE."

It never occurs to the whores that run the (not our) government to force manufacturers and billion dollar retailers like Walmarts to sell the damn masks at cost pro bono publico.  Why.. that would run contrary to the the Free Market, the greatest "tool" ever invented for the good and progress of mankind.  What would we want another socialist failure?

No... just that our whores in charge act like Roman Emperors....

Rome had a grain problem.  The free market (subject to natural fluctuations and shortages) could not do the job of feeding the populace. by itself. The city’s politicians therefore intervened in the grain supply, or annona, beginning in the second century B.C.

There were direct interventions, like Augustus’ purchase of grain for distribution, and also laws which mandated grain sales at subsidized prices. The first such law was passed in 123 BC.  In 58 BC grain was made FREE and the eligibility for receiving it broadened. Augustus and his imperial successors maintained this system at enormous cost (as we have seen); In order to bring down the market price of grain and, in addition to direct price controls, Claudius built the port at Ostia and insured the cargoes of grain carrying ships.  He began various infrastructural projects aimed at increasing arable land.  In the early third century AD Septimius Severus added olive oil, and later on Aurelian added pork and wine.

It speaks volumes about our ever more exceptionally loathsome country, that Roman Emperors stand in a better light than our government.