Not to belittle the lives that depend on this stuff, but these issues go back to flippin Rome. The Grain Dole was a huge part of Roman politics and it's history

Not to belittle the lives that depend on this stuff, but these issues go back to flippin Rome. The Grain Dole was a huge part of Roman politics and it's history is fascinating reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cura_Annonae#Politics_and_the_grain_supply https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cura_Annonae#Politics_and_the_... These issues are not very complicated: give people free stuff and they support you, let the next consuls/emperor worry about the revolts in Sicily (or whatever) that the Dole causes. We keep saying that these problems will come back to haunt us, but that's all history has ever been.