Time for an end

Cancel 2016.2

Cancel 2016.2

The Almighty
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/08/dead_men_farming.html

Time to put an end to this waste. Subsidies to farmers (not to mention corps) need to end... NOW. MAYBE you help in times of extreme crisis, but the ongoing funding without regard to market conditions is ridiculous. Did Ken Lay really need to receive a subsidy? Or Ted Turner?

Obviously those are a just a couple of the extremes, but still, the very fact that they received farm subsidies is ludicrous. The only thing, and I do mean only thing, that makes this "seem" palatable is the fact that we waste more money on corporate subsidies.

This is what we get (and deserve) for acting as if "money = free speech". The bribes (I mean lobbyists support) keep idiotic policies like this in place. We need leadership from BOTH parties to step up and put an end to this. Unfortunately, as we all know, the chances of that are about as good as getting Americans to start eating healthier and exercising more.
 
Superfreak said:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/08/dead_men_farming.html

Time to put an end to this waste. Subsidies to farmers (not to mention corps) need to end... NOW. MAYBE you help in times of extreme crisis, but the ongoing funding without regard to market conditions is ridiculous. Did Ken Lay really need to receive a subsidy? Or Ted Turner?

Obviously those are a just a couple of the extremes, but still, the very fact that they received farm subsidies is ludicrous. The only thing, and I do mean only thing, that makes this "seem" palatable is the fact that we waste more money on corporate subsidies.

This is what we get (and deserve) for acting as if "money = free speech". The bribes (I mean lobbyists support) keep idiotic policies like this in place. We need leadership from BOTH parties to step up and put an end to this. Unfortunately, as we all know, the chances of that are about as good as getting Americans to start eating healthier and exercising more.
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I agree with you, a great idea and much needed especially with the debt we have.
I wouldn't be that pessimistic though, the Repub congress under Newt was able to get Clinton to agree to cut farm subsidies in the 90's, it is possible.
 
"Last week, the New York Times reported that dairy farmers in New Zealand get along perfectly well without subsidies: "[E]ver since a liberal but free-market government swept to power in 1984 and essentially canceled handouts to farmers -- something that just about every other government in an advanced industrial nation has considered both politically and economically impossible. ... [O]utput has soared."

US... did you happen to actually READ the article? As the above mentions, cutting subsidies doesn't mean a reduction in supply. In the New Zealand example, their output rose. With rising supply, prices should come down... not up.
 
TheDanold said:
I agree with you, a great idea and much needed especially with the debt we have.
I wouldn't be that pessimistic though, the Repub congress under Newt was able to get Clinton to agree to cut farm subsidies in the 90's, it is possible.
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I disagree. I am most certainly pessimistic. Who cares if they made cuts? Eliminate them completely. If Turner and Lay were still receiving subsidies, then there is a GLARING problem that needs to be addressed.

As the article suggests... we do not subsidize restaurants and other small businesses to guarantee they stay in business. Why do it with farmers? Or more importantly with large corporations?
 
Superfreak said:
I disagree. I am most certainly pessimistic. Who cares if they made cuts? Eliminate them completely. If Turner and Lay were still receiving subsidies, then there is a GLARING problem that needs to be addressed.

As the article suggests... we do not subsidize restaurants and other small businesses to guarantee they stay in business. Why do it with farmers? Or more importantly with large corporations?
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we do subsize big corps too. How many millions in tax breaks to coprs get to build a plant in a state. heck we were paying for mickey dees to advertise overseas a while back and might still be. do a search on corporate welfare.
The tax cuts given to hedge fund managers is equal to 1/3 of the feds annual welfare costs, etc,etc,etc.
 
uscitizen said:
yep lets just make ourselves dependent on imported food, so then we can be held hostage for food and oil.
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So we will be held hostage to imports once we get rid of subisides? One of the most agriculturally rich nations in the world, and we'll be held hostage because the government won't prop up Kenneth Lay and large agri-business that is quite capable of turning a profit on it's own?
 
uscitizen said:
we do subsize big corps too. How many millions in tax breaks to coprs get to build a plant in a state. heck we were paying for mickey dees to advertise overseas a while back and might still be. do a search on corporate welfare.
The tax cuts given to hedge fund managers is equal to 1/3 of the feds annual welfare costs, etc,etc,etc.
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"Subsidies to farmers (not to mention corps) need to end... " - Superfreak
 
Cutting farm subsidies is difficult to do. although I am certainly in favor of it. This is one of those things that neither party really wants to deal with.
 
uscitizen said:
yep lets just make ourselves dependent on imported food, so then we can be held hostage for food and oil.
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Oil is very inelastic. Think of food more as clothing, in that it can be made in a lot of places and there is a large variety of different types, we buy most clothing from southeast asia and we are doing just fine. So would it be with food.

Besides cutting food subsidies doesn't mean making ourselves dependent on imported food, as with the New Zealand example, food production is doing very well, New Zealand lamb is world renowned and when you lose government as a crutch you tend to get stronger and more innovative to survive.
 
Darla said:
Really? I am convinced that high-fructose corn syrup is what's killing Americans. Have you checked labels, that stuff is in everything. Everything.
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That's what Borlaug hates about American Farm Subsidies. Corn-Syrup is so unhealthy yet cheap so it's in everything they can use it in just to cut-costs.
 
"Candy corn, corn chips and corn dogs prove this veggie isn't always good for you. As it turns out, our love affair with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) may be linked to the obesity epidemic. The sweetener is made when fructose, a type of sugar, is added to glucose, the natural sugar in corn. HFCS is found in abundance in sodas and many processed foods, from cookies to yogurt. But HFCS has none of the healthy stuff found in corn, and studies suggest fructose is more likely to make you fat than glucose. If HFCS is listed as one of the first five ingredients on a food label, don't eat it."

http://www.rd.com/content/health-iq-high-fructose-corn-syrup---health-questions-answered/
 
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