the kids of Joe's Bait Shop

You know there is a difference between a metaphor and a story.  A metaphor is usually just a quick thing, we don't worry about the guy you giving the fish to having maybe an allergy to fish, or how the fish feel about the whole thing.  I imagine they would rather sacrifice one of their own, even every day, than have that guy learn how to fish and catch eight or nine of them a day, maybe sell them and make enough money to buy a boat, then a fleet of boats, and fish the damn river dry so that nobody drops by Joe's Bait Shop anymore, So that Joe has to close up the shop and can't send his kids to college to get a lot of knowledge so they all end up becoming working white class and vote for Trump so see where it all ends up.

Reminds me of a story I read, I don't remember where.  It seems like there was some cove in New England, and like three families controlled the fishing there.  I don't remember how, I think they had some dubious contract with the local government.  Seems like they shared it nicely and because in a sense it was their cove they were careful not to overfish and everything was hunky dory.

But not for the guys hanging around the docks, probably steps away from Joe's Bait Shop, who were thinking hey, we live on the shores of the cove just like those fatcat three families, how come we can't fish there?  So they went to the feds, or whatever the next higher level of government was, because that's the way democracy works isn't it?  And the feds, or whoever they were, said by gum that ain't right and made it so that everybody could fish in the cove.

So everybody did, and soon there were no fish in the cove, and well, you know how that affected Joe's Bait Shop and Joe's progeny.  The moral of the story from the guy who wrote the book, whose name I can't recall, was when people own stuff they take care of it, but when everybody owns it, it's the same as nobody owning it, and they don't take care of it and it goes to shit.

Good and well enough, I supposed, setting aside the book to take a puff of my cigar and a sip of brandy in my dusty book-lined study, but what about those other guys?  Didn't they have a right  to fish the cove?  Should we just give everything to fatcats so that they will take care of it?

Oh I don't think so.  On the other hand we can't depend on those guys around the cove to voluntarily take good care of it.  So we need regulations.

Dumbo's latest pronouncement is that he is going to pass some kind of law where before you make a new regulation you have to eliminate two other regulations, so that after awhile we will only have half as many regulations and a little after that a quarter then an eighth, and eventually one, and then we won't be able to make any more regulations because there won't be two to eliminate, and won't  that be great?  No, it will be terrible because all our coves will be empty, and Joe's Bait Shop will be closed and his kids won't even be asking for a fish, because there will be no more fish.  

My nephew, who is a Trumpist and will likely ruin Thanksgiving today at my sister's true blue house by chanting "Make America Great Again." buys houses, fixes them up, and sells them.  And hates regulations because he has to fix up houses just so to pass inspection.  But what about the tools he uses to fix up the houses?  If they didn't have to pass inspection they would be crappy and wouldn't work, and if houses didn't have an inspection to pass they would be crappy and nobody would want to buy one.  So there you go, and there you are.

Old Dog, who has been missing seminars lately, complains sometimes that these posts wander all over the place, and to this I want to reply:  Yes they do Old Dog, yes they do.