Posted on 04/23/2008 11:49:19 AM PDT by JZelle
With the world consuming more food than it produces and global grain stocks the lowest for 30 years, food prices are soaring from Indonesia to Indianapolis. Some experts called it the Perfect Storm and others a tsunami.
The global food crisis has a common denominator with the still unfolding subprime mortgage debacle whose losses the International Monetary Fund (IMF) now estimates at $1.1 trillion: Greed. Predatory lending coupled with criminal profiteering was behind the still unfolding subprime mortgage debacle whose losses the International Monetary Fund now estimates at $1.1 trillion. It is the largest loss of wealth in modern U.S. history. And greed also played a big part in the pell-mell rush to move land out of food production and into ethanol biofuels.
Corn at $6 a bushel is up 30 percent in four months. Wheat prices jumped 130 percent in a year and wheat stocks are at their lowest in 60 years. Globally, rice hit historic levels, partly driven by Australia's six years of drought.
India's finance minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said, "When millions of people are going hungry, it's a crime against humanity that food should be diverted to biofuels." World Bank President Robert Zoellick said surging food costs could translate into "seven lost years" in the fight against worldwide poverty. Thirty-three countries are at risk of social upheaval, he warned.
The head of one of the world's largest oil companies told us, not for attribution by name, that commodity speculators also bought gazillions in oil futures to sit on them until the profit looked right, then dribbled them out at $110 to $117 a barrel, double the price a year ago. Cynical speculators reckoned drivers would rather cut down on food for the family than gas for the car.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
First Rule of Holes: When you're in one, stop digging.
When the people who are best able to feed, clothe, nurture, and educate their children are making a conscious decision NOT to have kids, while those least able to do so are, frankly, breeding like vermin, where does this get us in a few generations? (The comparison may be inappropriate. Vermin will stop breeding before they outstrip their food source.)
History shows again and again
How nature points out the folly of men
(Blue Öyster Cult)
Evidently, you like the tune but missed the message.
No. Haiti is in permanent strife, permanent turmoil, permament poverty. Its not necessary to go back to the beginning, get a history and just focus on the last hundred years. It will make your hair stand up.
But its a good case study nevertheless. If you understand how wealth is built and accumulated, you begin to understand how endemic poverty becomes entrenched.
Did you even click the link?
The link is irrelevant to my suggestion that people mired in poverty should stop breeding.
We have spent countless billions upon billions of dollars becoming hopelessly mired in a stagnant quagmire with no benchmarks for success, no clearly defined mission, and no visible end in sight while the situation just continues to get worse. What is the exit strategy for the War on Poverty anyway?
Finally someone who understands! The best cure for high prices is high prices. The governments prediction for wheat prices for 2009 to 2017 is under $5/bushel and corn at $3.50. There are a bunch of chicken littles running around freeperville.
Grain is the new oil.
Considering that someone in the mid-twentieth century had the bright idea of sterilizing (or killing) all those that had no economic worth...
And you favor the idea that those with no economic worth should not have children...
What's the difference?
It's the difference between having a partial-birth abortion and not getting pregnant to begin with. The former is a monstrous act; the latter makes a great deal of sense in many cases.
Why do you think that needlessly condemning millions to a life of poverty, hunger, and deprivation is a noble thing?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.