$216 million and I would have done it for free
“The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth.
There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.”
― John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
A friend did mention this destruction of whine to stabilize the prices and I just laughed a bit, nodded and said “Steinbeck”. He was utterly confused and I had to remind myself a moment that this meme and quote from a fantastic work is not as much in popular conscious as is “You are a wizard harry”.
destruction of whine
This is what Brits do to maintain their monopoly on the whining industry
Just blend it all together and ship it to North America as house blend. Someone will drink it because we have no standards.
No, send it to me. I have standards, but I can’t resist a great deal like a lifetime of free wine.
Overproduction crisis? In MY capitalist economy?
Agence France-Presse explains that the sharp decline in demand for wine means that prices have also fallen
I thought supply and demand were good?
It turns out profit margins are more important than allowing workers to have cheap goods, or their wellbeing, or maximising use of resources, or just being efficient at anything in general. Green number > real world
I hate this trait of Capitalism so much. They will intentionally take a loss rather than sell stuff slightly below their fixed rate.
Let them drink wine.
the alcohol left behind will be used in other products, like cleaning supplies, hand sanitizer, or perfumes.
but honestly this isn’t the worst idea
