Taxes

Maybe we should stop paying farmers to turn their corn into engine fuel.

 

That is madness. We all know we can grow enough corn to satisfy all of the USA's fuel needs!

 

Possibly.

However, corn prices are near a 10yr low and are less than half of what they were 5 years ago. The market seems to have self-corrected, and i don't think that's either a good example of inflation or indicative of why low earners have it rough.

 

or stop paying them not to grow food. . .

 

There are also large subsidies for crop insurance that pay for when food won't grow.

Is it important to have a farming industry in this country? Is having one worth subsidizing it, or would it be ok to see it go the way of the garment industry?

 

I go through a cow, two pigs and a quarter of a buffalo a yeae, then whate very I shoot. I buy chicken from the store, but that's it.

It's a lot cheaper to but in bulk if you've got the freezer space

 

I'm biased when it comes to farming, but yes it needs to stay

 

And the capital to make a huge purchase.

Is there insurance available against the power going out? Or just spring for a generator?

 

the question is whether farming goes away if they lose these subsidies. and i'm going to say no. the day of the single family farmer is basically gone. said "families" are basically huge corporations with diverse holdings. surely they can afford crop insurance on their own. look at California. we have one family who owns water rights for growing almonds and they use more water than the entire county of los angeles and they essentially handed that water for free. obviously there's a lot of room for improvement without having to torpedo the industry. they also get a pass on estate taxes as well which makes zero sense to me logically. why should rich farmers get a pass and rich other people don't?

 

I wish I had that option, but it's very expensive to do that here.

 

I barter quite a bit.

I have a generator

 

A lot of our farming regulations and laws are dumb and full of cronyism

 

A lot of this is true but I can tell you there's still quite a bit of "family" farming in Tennessee.

 

much of the farming in California is "family" farming, but we are talking about tens of thousands of acres and huge revenues. i'd be all for giving special dispensation to actual small family farms. in particular ones that are organic or grass fed meat.

 

Some are crap, most could be better. The whole paying not to grow thing is far more complicated than it seems.

 

We have a federally protected sugar cartel in this country that has made candy and chocolate producers move out the country.

Meat processing has been whittled down to a couple of major players

 

I was talking about paying not grow. But continue, I am just an ideological piñata to beat on.

 

He was probably addressing the "some are crap" part.

 

I'm not beating up on you just adding that there's a ton of cronyism involved and a lot of waste and vote buying

 

It's the American Way.