In the news today is a lot of normal stuff. For example, the Town of Boone has some extra money jingling or burning a hole in its pocket, so it is looking for special interest groups to step up and put their fingers in the pie. Amounts in the game are really small so taxpayers demanding fairness and equal treatment from government aren’t allowed to complain.
We can expect government to go about the business of growing the welfare state. I was just reading a book by David Kelley, in which the author posited the cause of sustained poverty is lack of effort. The concept is expressed in the second law of thermodynamics. A chemistry professor friend once described it for popular audiences as, “left to its own devices, everything goes to #)%$.” Without production, there is no wealth; and megalomaniacs instinctively know they can increase their personal booty, power, and prestige if they can encourage growing numbers of fellow humans to rely on their majesty to transfer wealth to them without effort.
So then, over in Henderson County, producers exerted themselves to maintain some semblance of personal choice and prosperity in this country by funding the Young Patriot Essay Contest. High-school aged kids had to research and write essays to be judged on the basis of:
a compelling and relevant theme, factual support to conclusions, original wording, proper grammar, and discovering key in-depth points on why the 13 sovereign states yielded much self-control to unify for common interests.
Winners received four-digit monetary awards with no strings attached. Contest organizers probably assumed children who valued the Constitution understood the importance of responsibility in exercising liberty. Winners said they would use the money to go to college, go on a mission, and invest in real estate.