I have had the same conversation multiple times recently.  When that happens, it usually means that I need to write something up.  Let's call this post the "Order Buyers are NOT Slaves" post.  I'm shocked at how many people seem to think that this is the case.

Before we start, let's cover the obligatory bases.  Has there ever in the history of the world been a dishonest, unscrupulous order buyer?  Oh, yes.  Has an order buyer ever put a few rats on a load hoping that the buyer wouldn't notice?  Yep.  Has an order buyer ever bid excessively through a buying parameter?  Yes.

One more question:  Has anyone ever written an order buyer a hot check?  Uh, yes.  So, let's just leave it at that, because if we don't we could go on all night, back-and-forth, like this.

Here's the conversation that keeps cropping up:

Ann:  You know, there are all kinds of profitable cattle out there.  Maybe you should start hooking up with order buyers so you can expand your presence beyond the local salebarn.

Anonymous Cattleman:  Bah!  I've tried to use order buyers, but every time I use them, they always take their cut!

Um, yeah.  That "cut" that they take is called a "wage", as in compensation for their time and service.  That's how we roll in Civilization.  It's been that way for quite some time, too.  They physically travel to the sale.  They sit in the seat.  They bid on the cattle.  They ship the cattle to you, usually after some additional handling and sorting.  While they are doing all of this, you are at the homeplace working yourself, getting things done that you couldn't have gotten done if YOU had to physically go to the sale yourself.  They charge you a fee for this service.  I really don't understand from where the confusion comes.  However, confusion there is.  Apparently, a non-trivial number of cattlemen are under the impression that the order buyer should do all of this at ZERO cost.  Last time I checked, that was called "slavery".  Maybe that's how things are done in Sudan, or on the camel tracks of Saudi Arabia, or in that Shangri-La we call North Korea, but that's not how things work here in the good old U.S. of A.  Well, at least not yet.

Capitalism is the system by which every man's ability to produce, every man's time, every man's effort, is assigned a value.  There is no such thing as a person whose life and abilities are without intrinsic worth.  By expecting another man to work and perform a service without fair compensation, we are essentially saying that the man HIMSELF is without worth or value.  Now, if a man CHOOSES to donate his time or effort - that's great!  In fact, we are called to do just that.  BUT, that volunteerism is the individual's choice and no one else's.  In fact, the only reason that volunteerism is virtuous is precisely because the time and effort being volunteered HAS A VALUE.  See how that works?

So, I don't want any more talk of those mean old order buyers "taking their cut" because the fact of the matter is, I don't want to live in a world where they don't. 

Forecasters are killing the North American Cattle Industry.
"Global warming" is a complete fraud designed to advance the cause of socialism and enslave humanity.
Abortion is the murder of an innocent human being and is never justified under any circumstance whatsoever.
Every human being is a question, to which the ONLY answer is Jesus Christ.