THE SEWAGE SEPTIC TRUCK INCIDENT

One instance I remember as a child that taught me a great lesson of free markets and free trade. This incidence tought me a great deal about what America stood up for. It was an incidence in the 1989. The government of Jordan placed tough regulations on imports of ghee (clarified butter). A form of tax was imposed as a custom that made local food cost more. The country itself is not an oil rich country, so mainly everyone was impacted from this law passed by the kingdom of Jordan. Smuggling ghee to the country wasn’t heard of and at least very difficult things to do as most containers were inspected thoroughly by the custom agents. Smugglers got creative and decided to use the one vehicle that no one dears to inspect. The raw sewage septic truck. The smugglers were successful; they claimed (when they got caught) that they washed the truck before filling it with ghee. But God know what diseases this caused that time. The smugglers brought ghee to the country and sold it to the largest corporation for production in the country. By the time the news has leaked to the public, the ghee was sold as ice-cream, chips and almost everything made from ghee. When my mother heard the news, she warned us day and night not to buy “anything” from the local store. No chips, ice-cream, candy, I mean everything was prohibited from the fear of unknown diseases that this ghee might cause.

One day on my way to school, I met two of my classmates early and decided to chat before entering the school building. One of my friends went to buy some chips, and offered us a bite or two. I remembered my mother’s advice and stayed away from his offer. The two of my friends who ate from these chips had extreme stomach pain after few minutes of eating. They couldn’t attend school that day and spend the day at home sick. The days past and the months followed where we were used to not buy candy or any treat made during this period. One day I remember I came back from school, and my mother brought the famous Jay’s potato chips, when we opened the bags and ate few bites of chips, I suddenly remembered whatever happened to the poop ghee in the chips? My mother answered me “not to worry my son, this is not local chips, this is AMERICAN chips”. From that day on, I had a respect to the country I was born in. I wish that instead of punishing the smugglers for their act, instead punishing the government for their harsh custom laws that affects everyone. The people were and still today are under harsh and strickt market that makes it hard to compete and or start a business. I didnt want to go off my topic, but there is a lesson for us on the direction we choose to take

Sacrificing freedoms for the sake of security will take the joy away as you take the rasberry tree away from the children. Most government regulations and taxation caused unintended consiquenses. Soon we will have an incident like the Poop ghee smugglers incident if we keep going down the route of higher taxes and lower wages.