Once upon a time in a country that shall remain unnamed (but it rhymes with Barizona), there was a federal program known as WIC that provided foodstuffs for women who were pregnant or had small children. This program, with origins dating back to at least 1972, had been a resounding success in the state as numbers of clients steadily increased over the years. However, a lady was elected queen in 2010 and knights of the legislative round table came to her and suggested that there be placed guards around the kingdom to prevent people from other lands coming and stealing from the citizens. She indeed did agree and a decree was made that such guards be placed and thus they were. In time this resulted in many of the people from other lands leaving and going back to their home kingdoms.
When this happened the lords of the WIC realm realized that the numbers of citizens petitioning for WIC benefits dropped precipitously. Faced with this calamity, there was much weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth amongst the WIC minions as this was interpreted as a failure of epic proportions. Much of the WIC treasure was then spent urging all citizens of the land to sign up for WIC if they possibly could, since it made no sense that a benevolent government organization should LOSE clientele. And the loss of clientele meant possible loss of employment for WIC workers.
Lost in the swirling controversy was the point that the decree had unearthed the fact that many of the previous WIC clients had indeed been citizens of other kingdoms, and had been stealing treasure from the good country of Barizona and the Empire to which she belonged.
After this episode, the good citizens of Barizona were left to ponder the following:
- Is it wrong for people from other lands to rob from our treasure?
- If there is less demand for a government service, is that necesarily a bad thing?
And they all lived happily ever after…
Dr. K
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