The other month, I had an interesting conversation with an old farmer. At the time it was just a nice visit but on reflection and analysis it became an important lesson. When I asked him how his life was going, he told me that life was getting easier because he was buying firewood to heat his house instead of cutting it himself.

My response to that news was to say, “That’s nice. Now you can sell your woodlot and you will have some money in the bank and you won’t have to pay property taxes on the woods anymore.”

He responded with a look that was a mix of pity and scorn and disbelief that a mature individual, capable of breathing and walking at the same time, could be so utterly stupid. He then kindly explained the error of my thinking.

He said, “To start with, the taxes don’t cost anything because every few years I can sell enough lumber to pay the taxes. But I can’t sell the woodlot. Ownership of the woodlot is the only thing that gives me power to negotiate price and specify quality when I discuss wood supply with my vendor. My supplier knows that I have kept the woodlot. He knows that there is a price below which I will buy wood and above which I will cut it myself. He knows that if he delivers good wood I will continue to buy but if he delivers crap I will cut it myself. It makes for a harmonious relationship between me and my supplier.”

And now dear reader, it is perfectly reasonable for you to say, “That is an amusing story but how does it affect me and why should I care?”

If you are a diabetic and have seen the price of insulin skyrocket the last few years, you have an interest in the story. If you have any kind of chronic condition that requires a long-term maintenance prescription, you have an interest in that story. Many of the medicines and medicine precursors that we use are no longer made in the USA. The drug companies that made our medicines farmed the work out to foreign companies because it made for lower cost and thus, higher profits. Now,we as consumers are suffering the consequence of their greed.

If you are an automobile manufacturer and you have thousands of customers who want to buy new trucks and you have acres and acres of new trucks that you can’t deliver because you are waiting for needed chips from a foreign supplier, you have an interest in that story.

If you are an American worried about national security and you wonder where our servicemen and women will get the supplies and material they will need if, God forbid, we ever get into a major conflict; you have an interest in that story. If you remember when the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan started and we had to buy small arms ammunition from Great Britain and Israel because we couldn’t make enough ourselves; you have an interest in that story.

The above sounds like I am an isolationist and against foreign trade. Much of the time trade between nations and peoples is a good idea. We do not have to make everything that we use and consume. I am only saying that we MUST retain the ability to make it ourselves when — not if — our suppliers decide to abuse their monopoly power and threaten our independence and security.

Larry Zollinger is a South Dayton resident.