Brickbat: I Can't Believe It's Not Legal

Kerrygold Irish

Ornua North America sells Kerrygold Irish butter in all 50 states. Whoops, make that 49. Wisconsin state officials recently reminded distributors that no butter can be sold in the state unless it has been certified by an official panel of experts. Kerrygold, which is imported, hasn't been certified, so anyone selling it faces a fine of up to $1,000 or six months in jail.

Comments

[The Hyperbole]

This will create a black market, and drive up the profit margarine for bootleggers.

[loveconstitution1789]

This butter be changed otherwise Wisconsin is just another state churning out bad laws.

[Radioactive]

that's a slippery slope if I ever saw one...

[AlmightyJB]

I can't believe it's not certified butter

[loveconstitution1789]

That is an utter travesty.

[loveconstitution1789]

Udder travesty too.

[XenoZooValentine]

*nibbles a certain type of cheese with holes in it*

*narrows gaze*

[Trigger Hippie]

Gouda observation. It's not like Kerrygold is part of a cottage industry. Odd that they would focus on this particular provolone.

[Trigger Hippie]

Wisconsin,...cheese,...story,...butter,...lack of coffee,...inappropriate puns,...fuck it. It's about Wisconsin, I stand by my cheese puns. Got it, Munster?

[XenoZooValentine]

These puns are rather cheesy.

[Libertarian]

Wisconsin has gone whey over the line here.

[Radioactive]

now we're just milking this for laughs...

[XenoZooValentine]

Their regulators aren't exactly the cream of the crop.

[sarcasmic]

This is part of the illusion of freedom that we have in this country. They don't make it a crime for people to buy or possess this butter. No, people might be outraged at that. Instead they make it a crime to sell it. If people actually knew the list of things that may not be sold, they might actually be outraged. Or not. So many people seem to believe that businesses are the enemy, and government is our protector. If government bans the sale of something, then there must be a good reason. For example here in Maine it is now a crime to sell those old wood stoves that make lots of smoke. The inexpensive ones that a poor person can use to keep their house warm in the winter. Now that poor person must spend thousands of dollars on a fancy stove that doesn't make nasty, polluting smoke. That's how America is a rich country. Because it's illegal to be poor.

[rudehost]

Actually I disagree people wouldn't be outraged. People are only outraged when their pet issue falls under the gaze of the state. When it is someone else's freedom they either nod approvingly or don't care. It is not a coincidence that these people are in power. Every petty vindictive fascist little action reflects the will of the people. They are a mirror to the population at large who deep down believe it is more important to control their neighbor than secure their own freedom.

[Rufus The Monocled]

I'm convinced the same idiot who calls for onerous business regulations are the first to complain about that stupid regulation once they actually own a business.

[rudehost]

Without a doubt hence

"People are only outraged when their pet issue falls under the gaze of the state"

[Longtobefree]

People who call for onerous business regulation will never own a business. They will make their fortune as a bureaucrat, or worse, a politician.

[rudehost]

Are you kidding? Many such people have been highlighted on reason

See also: Poppy & Monroe

[XenoZooValentine]

A lot of them love it if they're already well-established enough to cope with it, since it's a barrier to entry for their competition.

Yes, they will still use them "I got mine, pull up the ladder" bullshit against libertarians anyway.

[Fist of Etiquette]

People like Jean Smith wonder what that law is really doing -- shielding shoppers from inferior butter or fending off foreign competitors from Wisconsin's dairy industry.

Sounds like someone doesn't want to make Wisconsin great again.

[Radioactive]

what's this "again" shit, remember what state you're talking about...

[Libertarian]

I'd like to see the Venn diagram of people who think this is a stupid law, yet also think Trump's plan for tariffs is a great idea.

[UnCivilServant]

You're comparing butter to sour cream here. Setting aside the question of whether it is a good idea, a tariff lowers compeditiveness by raising the price, but not by such dramatic margins as would be required to offset a half year in jail.

While you can call both market distortions, many items that are tariffed are still briskly traded openly and at near-market prices. Yes, black markets exist, but not for easily substituted goods such as this case. The margins are insufficient.

Now on the matter of if its a good idea I think we have to address the reason why it would ever be cheaper to ship something halfway across the globe instead of producing it in-country. It generally has to do with festering tendrils of busybodies and vested interests.

[Libertarian]

Well, if things are being traded openly, they're being bought and sold at market prices by definition.

I've seen Trump's proposals for tariffs range from 5 to 20 percent. If tariffs of 20 percent on widgets are imposed, and yet the imported widgets can still compete with the American-made widgets, that's still a heck of an economic distortion because all those resources (labor, capital, etc.) would otherwise be used to produce something else. The effect of the "comparative advantage" of the countries involved becomes invisible, and productivity in the U.S. becomes less efficient.

[UnCivilServant]

I find Robinson more convincing than Ricardo on the topic of "Comparative Advantage"

[Pope Jimbo]

Actually the law you are talking about Fist is a Wisconsin law banning the sale of pre-shredded cheese.

It is called the Make Wisconsin Grate Again bill.

[Radioactive]

argh, he rasped with his dying breath...

[XenoZooValentine]

Well he wouldn't write it, he'd just say it...

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[Monty Crisco]

Oh, anonbot, just when we think you're getting closer to passing the Turing test you erupt with gobbledygook shit like this... DON'T EVER CHANGE!!!

[Radioactive]

I blame the Irish...

[jonthiele]

well, this goes without saying

[Monty Crisco]

FUCK THAT!!! I blame George W. Bush!!!

*wipes forehead with back of hand while sitting back and exhaling..."
Man, that was close....

[XenoZooValentine]

Why? Is he Irish?

[BestUsedCarSales]

He sucks, therefore he is Irish.

[loveconstitution1789]

I'll drink to that!

Oh, Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling...

[AlmightyJB]

Heys guys, this Kerrygold butter is pretty good, maybe we need to up our butter making game. No, don't worry 'bout it. I know a guy.

[UnCivilServant]

The law was not implemented because of this product. It was clearly in existance beforehand, so the quality or lack thereof of Kerrygold is irrelevent.

[kbolino]

The law was not implemented because of this product.

True, but only in the narrowest sense. It's an anticompetitive law. It was meant to target products like this, whether this particular product existed at the time the law was drafted our not.

[Rufus The Monocled]

'What do you do for a living?'
'I'm a butter expert on a panel. I save lives.'

[XenoZooValentine]

"God has given me a gift. I panel well."

[Radioactive]

just trying to butter us up?

[XenoZooValentine]

Just trying to leave some margarine for error.

[Rufus The Monocled]

ARE WE ALL DONE?

[XenoZooValentine]

But we're not aged properly yet!

[Longtobefree]

I think Wisconsin should pass a law saying you cannot be on any kind of panel unless you have a panel-sitting certification, and a license you have to renew every year. Then authorize me, and only me, to issue certifications and licenses. I will have a nice beachfront office in the Bahamas, and they can fly down on any Tuesday between 11AM and noon. I will only charge a modest five thousand dollar fee for the certificates, and a mere three thousand per license. After ten years on a board, I will allow license renewals by mail for a five hundred convenience fee.

[Radioactive]

that's mighty white of you...but it being Wisconsin and all that's only to be expected. Send out the call to Michigan..."Can we borrow some of your black folks?"

[XenoZooValentine]

"We all welcome our new..."

*clop clop clop clop*

"...panel."

[Pope Jimbo]

It isn't like Wisconsin doesn't have a lot of dumb laws to protect dairy farmers.

It was illegal to sell margarine at all until 1967 in Wisconsin. It was illegal to serve margarine in restaurants until 2011.

Butter is great. Unless it is butter from non-Wisconsin dairy farmers.

[Fuck You - Cut Spending]

Explains why Last Tango In Paris wasn't filmed in Wisconsin.