Re: Farmall Bailout

Posted by sws55 on February 04, 2009 at 10:37:19 from (173.18.25.233):

In Reply to: Re: Farmall Bailout posted by Hugh MacKay on February 03, 2009 at 17:40:25:

Hugh,

I don't disagree with you one bit. Mark's posting was obviously written in fun, I liked it, and I'm poking back in fun too. To most people, in the U.S. anyway, farmers (corporate agribusiness) complaining about government programs does sound more than a little like the kettle calling the frying pan black.

I don't intend to disrespect anyone else's opinion, I just want to express another side of the argument.

Farm land prices around here have moved well past $5000 an acre. That's more than 150 to 200 bushel corn or 45 to 60 bushel beans can pay for alone. A growing portion of land sales are to investors rather than active farmers. These investors can pay inflated prices and rent out the ground because the tax benefits more than make up for their losses. In effect they're farming the government rather than the land or any livestock.

In the U.S. the Deartment of Agriculture and the agricultural lobbying industry in this country are huge, on the scale of the banking lobby and defense contractors. This may not help the small farmer much, but U.S. government farm programs are deeply entrenched and are as sacred in this country as any other corpotate welare or entitlement program. The people and businesses supporting the lobbyists are spending alot of money to keep it that way. Some of these efforts have been effective and helpful, some are self serving. It's just a fact of life in this country.

Locally, things are getting tough real fast. In the last month the biggest employer in town just laid off 40% of its work force, just under 1000 people, and the company gave the remaining people a 5% paycut. That's a shock for the community and now even healthy businesses are cutting costs and laying off people to prepare for tough times. Maybe that's bugging me too much and I'm just venting when something hits a nerve.

Thanks for listening.

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