It's a result of Jimmy Carter's dairy subsidies. There was a Planet Money episode about it, and the origin of the phrase "government cheese":
https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/08/31/643486297/episode-862-big-government-cheese
Everyone makes fun of it, but that shit was sooooo damn good. My aunt and uncle got government cheese when I was really little, and I loved going over for visits and grilled cheese, lol.
They're preparing for the Dragonborn. He will need all 1.4 billion pounds of cheese to heal mid fight.
I thought, "1.4 billion pounds of cheese can't be a real number, right?" Turns out, it kinda is. 1.4 billion pounds (actually generally 1.45-1.5 billion) is the amount of cheese the USDA stores in cold storage warehouses across the US. And indeed, much of that seems to be in caves in Missouri. But any particular cave probably only stores a few million pounds, although getting specific numbers is rather difficult.
Okay, see, if this were most of what the government did; I'd happily pay taxes.
I'd pay extra and ask how I could help. I'd be painting american flags on shit, instead of saying 'smash the state'.
That's just my emergency stash. I try to keep at least two week's worth of cheese there at any time.
It would be all well and good to decry the government "propping up Big Dairy," if any kind of real social safety nets existed in our stupid country. Ya know, to help the actual people who would be out on their asses, if any large industry really started struggling.
But we're not gonna do that in the USA, now are we?
Subsidizing industries, bending rules, creating loopholes, zero-interest loans, etc....that's the closest we can come to securing and protecting the welfare of any large group of working-class people. It shouldn't be that way, but the political climate is only getting WORSE, in terms of us being entirely unable to enact better solutions.
It just is what it is. Indirectly propping up regular people's livelihoods by enriching the Cheese Barons is the best we can do, as stupid as it sounds to actually say that.
Same with the rest of the food system, the airlines, the private utility companies, auto makers, etc. I'm not gonna be the one to just say "well, we should stop propping up these fat-cats," if it means people literally end up homeless.
The working people are basically hostages. If the government stops playing by the Ultra-Capitalists' rules, well, they aren't bluffing. They'll just fold up a huge portion of whatever industry they're currently invested in, let people become destitute by the tens of thousands, and re-invest that cash in some new racket.
Complaining about farm and cheese subsidies is like accusing the hostage negotiator of collaborating with criminals, because he sends some pizzas into the bank, during a hostage crisis. The poor hostages are the ones eating most of the fucking pizza. At least they won't die hungry, if they end up getting shot. Don't take their pizza away, just to keep it from the hostage-takers.
There’s a bunch of these huge warehouse-like caves in Missouri, some are more natural, but many have been developed. They are super valuable because of the natural climate consistency.
An example near Kansas City: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SubTropolis
I replied with this lower down then figured it might as well be a top level comment.
Here is a great YouTube video that explains not only this cheese cave, but the reason it even exists and then where we get the phrase "government cheese" from and the whole government program of propping up the dairy industry.
This is my retirement plan. When the time comes, I'll hide in the vast caves and eat cheese the rest of my existence.
Not this, it comes from the free blocks of Velveeta style "cheese" the us government would give low income families in the 1980's
Sorry for the YouTube link but this explains not only the phrase, but also the entire think this post is about.
