Constant Conservative

First, a bit of context. Anybody know what a “bailout” was originally? It is pretty simple. Comes from seaman (who for some reason usually did not know how to swim) trying to bail out (that is, remove all the uninvited water) from a foundering or sinking vessel. In modern times, we’ve come to use it to mean, metaphorically, that we will prevent someone or something from failing, usually in a financial sense.

Please note, the point of bailing water out of the boat was to keep the boat afloat long enough to get the occupants to shore or another, non-imperiled vessel. It was an emergency, temporary, measure intended to positively change the status quo.

Now, on to what I’m trying to say here. People engaged in turning perfectly good corn into fuel, are wondering if, you know, they could get a bit of help here:

Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer wants you to know that that ethanol bailout we discussed earlier this week is not actually a bailout. What is it? A “Guaranteed loan-type program for operating capital.” It still sounds like the USDA could snaz that up a bit, but it’s a start. And Schafer wants you to know that it’s part of an ongoing thing, not something new that was just developed (that’s a fair point to consider).

[snip]

Meanwhile, we’ll stick with our original view. A bailout is a bailout is a bailout. If the loans are meant to help ethanol producers that got stuck on some bad corn bets, preventing them from turning a profit, that sounds like they’re getting bailed out.

Never saw that one coming, did you? Now, how do we get people to understand that you do not start across the ocean with a boat which has a huge whole in the bottom, then call for help bailing the thing out when you’ve barely cleared the harbor?

Ethanol is probably not the future of South Dakota or any other corn-producing state. While the reasons for that are the topic of another post (should I get the time to pull everything together), it is enough to know that we taxpayers have been subsidizing ethanol development and production for a good decade. I suppose it is a bit like parents with stay-at-home children: “Honey, you know that we’ve been taking care of Junior for 10 years since he graduated from college, do you think he’s gonna get a job?”