I was recently reading the concluding chapters of Genesis, in which Joseph was appointed governor of Egypt because Pharaoh respected his wisdom. Joseph was in charge of seeing the people through a famine. First, he prepared by stockpiling. Then, when things got scarce, he sold the provisions to the people – first for money, then for livestock, then for the very land they lived on.
It was refreshing to see government dealing straight with people. They were given the option of having food or land, and their choice to enslave themselves to government was voluntary. It’s not like today where government takes money from people who don’t need anything (except maybe interstate highways and national defense) from government, gives to people who have nothing but their votes to give in return, supposes economies can persist without commodities and has no limits to the dorky rules it is willing to invent to penalize anybody who is trying to sustain vital elements of the economy.
Well, a few generations later, those in power forgot about Joseph and chose to govern with deference to worst-case scenarios spun by special interests.
