“I am a fourth-generation commercial fisherman,” said [Homer Simpson] of Ocean Springs. “Does the federal government want to see a fifth generation commercial fisherman?
“I don’t want any handouts, I want to go back to work.”
[Simpson], an avid recreational angler as well, said the federal government needs to work on three specific areas to help shrimpers across the northern Gulf of Mexico get back on the water.
“No. 1, lower fuel cost,” he said. “No. 2, raise shrimp prices and thirdly, stop imports of shrimp for 10 years. It doesn’t matter if we got hit by a storm or not if we don’t address one of these three things.”
1. The cost of fuel is determined by market forces, not the federal government, so any downward adjustment that the federal government attempts will involve taking money from one group to artificially depress fuel costs to reduce another group's expenditures on fuel, thus giving the money to the latter group. In other words, a handout.
2. The federal government does not set shrimp prices, therefore any action the federal government takes to manipulate shrimp prices upward will have the effect of taking money from shrimp consumers (or at least those consumers who will still continue buying shrimp if the cost increases) for the exclusive purpose of enriching shrimp producers. The difference in cost between the federal-government mandated price and the value of the shrimp on the open market would be a handout.
3. Banning imported shrimp would, in addition to depriving consumers of varieties of shrimp they might very well prefer for their own personal reasons, have the effect of decreasing supply for no reason beyond political expediency. From Econ. I we know (or should know) that decreasing supply increases price. Any increase in shrimp prices as a result of preventing foreign shrimp producers from selling to willing U S consumers is a gift from the federal government to domestic shrimp producers. Which is, of course, a handout.
I won't attempt to decipher what the gentleman means about fifth generation fishermen. Is he threatening not to reproduce or is he threatening to reproduce? It isn't made clear. What is made abundantly crystal-clear is that a handout is exactly what this fisherman wants.
1:25 PM
