Say Anything Blog

I guess we should be giving taxpayer-sponsored aid to any business that suffers from bad management, then.  Actually, going out of business is what happens to businesses that can’t cut the mustard(farming joke), and is what protects us from bad business and inefficient use of resources.

"Give the lefties a pile of money, and they’ll spend it buying votes.” - Rush Limbaugh on the “bailout”.

Exactly Robert.

It seems to me that bailing out these farmers year after year is just propping up the bad business practices that leave the farmers unable to deal with routine hardships like a relatively mild drought.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

I’ve been amazed by how such a conservative state has such a liberal Representation in Congress. ..."Cognitive dissonance” comes to mind.

Without farm subsidies and pandering, I doubt the Democrats would have such a monopoly over ND Congressional politic.  Yet one more reason to get rid of farm subsidies and such inneficient and ineffective government spending.

how did they first get elected in what I would like to know..

Anon, they get elected because while ND is a conservative state on most issue...it is also a very populist state on others.

The idea that these farmers need federal aid has become so ingrained that anyone suggesting otherwise is scorned and derided.  If Republicans want to replace the Democrats in federal Congress they have to pander to the ag industry, and that means support subsidies.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

There was no coverage of the rally outside of North Dakota and South Dakota (and some ag publications, I suppose). No policymakers noticed, and Congress sure paid no attention.

The rally was intended to show North Dakotans that its elected officials care and that the Farmers Union is effective.

Wrong.

I’ve heard from a lot of farmers that the crops aren’t that bad.  Of course I haven’t talked to farmers in the Bisrmarck Dickinson areas.

Why don’t we wait to get the crops in to see how they were?

Whistler, because the crops might not prove to be that bad and Kent Conrad would be denied the opportunity to vote his constituency a bunch of money out of the treasury.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Oh, sorry.

Won’t this increase the deficit that Gaylord is always yammering about?

I’m sure he’ll find a way to raise taxes on farmers to make up the difference.

ok, I want to know how many of those farmers talked about the need to get rid of the Paris Hilton tax because they were gonna lose their farms, I’ll bet not one of them did.

I just found this blog topic in a search for something else. I’m a farmer so would like to enlighten you all on a few things.

Yes, in many respects, farming is just like any other business. We fill out balance sheets, pay employees, etc.

We are very different in other respects. Other manufacturers pay wholesale for items used in production of their products. We pay extremely high retail prices for everything we use in production of our crops.

Retail stores pay wholesale prices for the items they sell. We pay retail for EVERYTHING we use.

The earnings of a professional farmer with a lifetime of experience (college degree or not), is compensated at minimum wage in the courts. He is not considered a professional, only a common laborer.

Yet, we must be up on everything from technology to mechanics, accounting to bio-technology. We make decisions every day involving many thousands of dollars, usually based upon hope as much as hard facts.

Other businesses can review their costs and price their products accordingly, assuring a measure of profit for what they sell. The prices we receive for our products are determined by weather, men in suits who have never touched the soil, and markets controlled by governments and commodity traders.

You all expect to go to the grocery store and purchase safe, top quality produce and food products at the lowest grocery prices in the world.

Rob, “Will Americans starve if these farmers don’t get their aid?”

Probably not. But do you know what country your food will come from if not from American farms? Do you know what the safety standards are in that country? Do you want to depend on a food source from other countries like we do for fuel?

As long as the government controls our profit margins, they can pay for the privilege. We would far rather determine our prices by the standards that other businesses do and then you can go to the store and buy a loaf of bread for $8 and a gallon of milk for $10.

My point is that there is a lot more to the farm subsidy programs than just keeping a badly managed farm in business. Even with the subsidies, which are not nearly as great as you seem to think, a badly managed farm will fail, just like any other business.

The amount of money the average farm receives in subsidies is far less than you are led to believe by stories in the press. It cost us $200,000 to plant and harvest 2000 acres in 2006. Our total farm subsidies were $27,000. We had severe drought conditions that held yields below average to poor. Federal crop insurance (another joke!) cost us more than it paid out, even with major drought losses. Crop insurance loss “formulas” are skewed to eliminate the loss on paper, thereby reducing the payout. 

In the distant past, we were able to absorb a bad year or two with our own cash and assets. In recent years, the cost of just one crop is enough to wipe us out due to our extremely high production costs.

And guess what else? We do not have company health and dental plans. Those of us who can, buy private health insurance and can’t even get dental insurance. Our health insurance now carries a $5,000 deductible to keep the premium affordable. I am now missing 5 molars because it is more important to pay for fertilizer than the dentist.

The average family farm is being squeezed out of business by a few ambitious mega-farmers and the large food corporations. I’ll come back to visit you when our entire food supply is totally controlled by the government and these large corporations, importing what we can no longer afford to produce here in America. You will all be singing a different tune then!