[AnotherUnixGeek]

Lets see....Letterman resides in CT., has office, corp headquarters and works in NYC and has a ranch in Montana. Doesn’t seen to difficult to understand.

It's difficult for me to understand why a man of Letterman's wealth deserves federal handouts simply because he owns a ranch. Or any other farmer for that matter, regardless of income.

[steveab]

He gets paid not to grow corn on his ranch.

[mmyers]

Stopping the farm subsidies and you will be paying $9.00 for a burger. The Government pays the farmers to keep the cost of food down.

[okie01]

It's difficult for me to understand why a man of Letterman's wealth deserves federal handouts simply because he owns a ranch. Or any other farmer for that matter, regardless of income.

The subsidies amount to a reward for the farmer/rancher who cooperates with governmental farm policy by either doing, or not doing, a certain thing. For example, not planting cotton, corn, tobacco or wheat. Or, on the other hand, adopting approved conservation and wildlife management techniques.

It's not a welfare program. It has nothing to do with the farmer's income or situation -- only with governmental policy.

Most of the subsidies are either stupid, wasteful or unnecessary. Or all of the above. But I can't blame an individual for collecting them, if they earned them.

[samtheman]

It's difficult for me to understand why a man of Letterman's wealth deserves federal handouts simply because he owns a ranch. Or any other farmer for that matter, regardless of income.

Thank you! How many posts did it take for somebody to get this right? Just goes to show, if you want to get to the bottom of something, call the Unix guy!