Farm Subsidies

ib1yysguy said:
Instead of looking stupid and arguing about whether or not farm subsidies actually serve a valuable purpose, it would behoove you to talk about what's wrong with the efficiency of the system - like for instance how they decide who gets them.
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They don't serve a practical purpose AND there's something wrong with the system.
 
uscitizen said:
Umm if you can't sell it all or the price goes to low to make money....
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There's no such thing as overproduction in the way IB1 is presenting it. Overprudction is rare, is usuaully the result of a brand new product that no one wants, and never happens to everyone at once in large, established industries.
 
Sure it gives us an advantage to sell our food globally - but only because we're basically giving it away. There's something called a NET LOSS there - something IB1 isn't smart enough to understand.

Why don't we just ship it over to other nations for free? It would reduce our trade deficit!
 
Watermark said:
Sure it gives us an advantage to sell our food globally - but only because we're basically giving it away. There's something called a NET LOSS there - something IB1 isn't smart enough to understand.

Why don't we just ship it over to other nations for free? It would reduce our trade deficit!
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well it would be better than shipping weapons.
 
Watermark said:
There's no such thing as overproduction in the way IB1 is presenting it. Overprudction is rare, is usuaully the result of a brand new product that no one wants, and never happens to everyone at once in large, established industries.
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Umm farming is a gamble. should I plant corn or soybeans, which one will make me any money this year. Then thre is drought disease, imports, etc.

I have seen in the past several people raise soybeans or corn and they could not even sell it for enough to break even on production costs. becuase of a bumper crop year and price drops or imports surged.
 
uscitizen said:
Umm farming is a gamble. should I plant corn or soybeans, which one will make me any money this year. Then thre is drought disease, imports, etc.

I have seen in the past several people raise soybeans or corn and they could not even sell it for enough to break even on production costs. becuase of a bumper crop year and price drops or imports surged.
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Everything is a gamble. Piping in oil is a gamble.
 
uscitizen said:
Not really agricultural products even those that are exported at a loss buy a lot of goodwill around the world. full belllies make more friends. so the extra costs may well be worth it.
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Not really. It puts foreign farmers out of business. Farming is one of the few things that developing countries actually have a comparative advantage in, and we undercut them - at a humongous cost to our productive citizens.
 
yeah foreign farmers in countries that cannot raise enough food for their country. Many countries do not raise enough food to feed their own people.

then there is outright aid to stircken areas...
should we buy the food from another country to give to ethopia or somesuch famine stricken area or have produce of USA on the bag and give our farmers work ?
 
uscitizen said:
so we should not do it because of that ?
Then we should not import stuff because it puts our people out of work or causes lower wages ?
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Hello, strawman.

And no it doesn't. Bush's tariffs on steel saved us no jobs and cost 250,000.

Any time you put a tariff on something, you're destroying other industries that need that item at a low price to compete on the world market.
 
The point is, if people in developing countries can't farm, then what are they supposed to do? If everyone's buying American and European free food, no one in developing countries can feed there own people or send it over to America or Europe at a profit. It's just a huge loss for America and a huge unemployment number for the developing countries.
 
Umm raise pot coke and poppies ?

Anyway last year our imports of food stuffs was virtually equal our exports.
 
ib...

If it is not that the businessman will raise prices it is that he will lower them too far.

Your argument assumes farmers are all irrational. Why only farmers, I don't know? Why does not every businessman lower his price until he goes out of business or continue to produce products for which their is no market to increase his profits. lol

Concerns over price fluctuations are somewhat outdated due to shorter growing seasons, better technology in farming and in transport.

Also, prices are not going to suddenly drop. The market is currently willing to pay inflated prices for farm goods. As production is allowed to find it's true efficient levels prices will likely decline and that will cause less production not more (that notion is insane) as more producers leave the market not finding the new price levels profitable. Prices will gradually stabilize at their natural levels.

Further, free trade eliminates concerns about "overproduction" and will help to meet short falls as well.
 
Did you know one of the largest recipients are the railroads? They get paid not to grow crops on land they never would grow crops on.
 
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