I’d be shocked if mega-farms didn’t get more subsidies per acre than small farmers.
11 Likes
This is a basic feature of their pathology, and not at all unique to her. They are totally happy to force the liberals to pay for their rugged individualist fantasies.
9 Likes
I certainly don’t have a problem with farm subsidies and I think that most people both here and elsewhere don’t either. It isn’t an easy business and is prone to wild price fluctuations. We want farmers to survive and be reasonably profitable both for their sake and our own. The problem arises when we hear someone go on about how they are “self-reliant” when they are the beneficiaries of part of the social contract that they would deny others.
26 Likes
In the speech she boasted about her parents’ self-reliance when she was a child.
The stats show that over a 14 year period, all long after she was a grownup, her father accepted about $40k in corn support subsidies (roughly $2500/year on average–not exactly livin’ large), her grandfather accepted a little more, and her uncle accepted a lot more.
Yes, it’s still somewhat hypocritical. But it’s not the “gotcha” the headline would have you believe (or that I wish were true, as I think she’s a complete nutcase–I even donated to her opponent’s campaign). IMO it’s very similar to the so-called “hypocrisy” of Warren Buffett calling for more steeply progressive taxation while he continues to take every tax deduction available to him today.
[quote=“kuangmk11, post:19, topic:50578, full:true”]Just to play devils advocate: that is not very much money over that amount of time for a farm. I grew up on an 800 acre wheat farm, we could easily spend 100-200k a year on a crop and only make 20K for the year. Even small farms are expensive businesses. Without subsidies there would only be mega-farms, the risk is just too high.
[/quote]Explain to me exactly why it’s a good idea for us to pay $100-200k per year to make sure one family’s business stays running to lose more money year after year? I run a small business and if I go into the red the government doesn’t give me shit. What makes farms so special?
7 Likes
Baby animals are cute? Farms remind us of a pastoral past that is long gone for most of us?
2 Likes
[quote=“knappa, post:26, topic:50578”]Baby animals are cute? Farms remind us of a pastoral past that is long gone for most of us?[/quote]That’d be nice and all if these farms had those things, and we were allowed to visit them. But that’s not how it is. Have the government set up a “farm preserve”, consider it a public park, and let people show up and see it if they want to so much. It’d be far cheaper than spending this much money on the personal fortunes of so few people.
2 Likes
I suspect the original rationale was that there were no mega-farms when most of the subsidy programs were enacted, and we wanted to assure steady income for family farmers so that we would have a stable food supply. A lot of the subsidies started during the Great Depression.
The rationale today seems mainly to be that there are tons of farmers who have been reliant on subsidies to smooth out their earnings for generations, and it’s politically really hard to pull back. Farm subsidies are like the mortgage interest deduction: when they were enacted they accomplished a needed effect, but their continuation distorts markets and doesn’t seem to have any positive effect, yet they’re extremely difficult to eliminate because so many people have a vested interest in them.
8 Likes
My totally unscientific guess: because Iowa is the first stop in the Presidential election cycle, meaning anyone who wants to have a shot at running the country has to kiss a lot of independent-farmer-butt.
6 Likes
[quote=“micah, post:28, topic:50578, full:true”]Farm subsidies are like the mortgage interest deduction: when they were enacted they accomplished a needed effect, but their continuation distorts markets and doesn’t seem to have any positive effect,[/quote]Actually, the mortgage interest deduction still has meaning, and has a positive net effect.
First, you have to pay taxes on interest you gain by having savings, so it’s only fair that you get to deduct any interest you lose by having debts.
Second, this interest offset helps encourage people to own homes rather than rent. Home ownership has been found to be one of the largest factors for both a healthy middle class (in general), and in peace of mind and making healthy economic choices (in individuals).
Hey, but thanks for voting to end my unemployment benefits early. I was totally going to blow it on rent. And some hookers and blow of course.
15 Likes
[quote=“knappa, post:23, topic:50578, full:true”]
I certainly don’t have a problem with farm subsidies and I think that most people both here and elsewhere don’t either. It isn’t an easy business and is prone to wild price fluctuations. We want farmers to survive and be reasonably profitable both for their sake and our own. …[/quote]
The elimination of agricultural subsidies in NZ in the mid-1980s was painful, no doubt about that. It was also wildly successful in the longer term.
2 Likes
Am I mistaken or are kin and family two different things?
1 Like
As far as I know they’re completely interchangeable terms.
3 Likes
et voila… http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/01/politics/iowa-christie-pig/
Iowa, christie, pig. Please, you don’t even need to click on this one.
1 Like
From an animal husbandry perspective, farrowing crates are useful, and prevent piglets from getting crushed. They also keep sows from biting other pigs, which is more common when they’re pregnant.
Buuuuuuuuut, the only reason why farrowing crates are “necessary” at all is because factory farms are so dense that they don’t have enough space per pig in the first place.
If they were willing to allow each sow several square meters in her pen, then she wouldn’t end up stepping on her piglets, and she would be separated from the other pigs in her own reasonably sized pen.
Instead of thinking about what’s best for the sow and the piglets, factory farms are only concerned about the profit margin, and space is expensive. So their solution is restricting the sow’s movement to the point where she can either lie down, or stand, but no turning around.
It’s a cruel solution to a cruel problem in a cruel industry.
ETA: I wonder: did this comment get ten likes just because I said factory farming is cuel (opinion) or because I stated the facts of why farrowing crates are used (objective fact)?
11 Likes
Maybe she actually did have the plastic bread bags over her shoes. That doesn’t mean her parents didn’t have money. That just means they were cheap evil bastards that delighted in making things difficult for their kids until the trust fund kicks in.
3 Likes
It depends of your culture or family values.
One would consider family only his/her partner and offspring, others would add their parents, other would add their grand-parents also, and other would do the same with uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces, etc.Damn! Some would even consider mascots part of their family (I do).
Snopes article:
2 Likes
Scroll to bottom, CTRL+F ‘Ayn’, yup.
3 Likes
