Posted on 07/07/2009 8:30:21 AM PDT by Constitutionalist Conservative
Before you start spooning up your next bowl of Frosted Flakes, ponder this: driven partly by the demand for ethanol, the price of the corn in your flakes is about 40 percent higher than it was a few years ago; the sugar easily cost you more than double the world price; and your milk is at least 15 percent more expensive than it would be in many other countries.
Americans pay much more than they should for their food. Thanks to a thicket of subsidies and tariffs that support American farmers and tilt the growing field against cheaper foreign producers, we get ripped off twice: first as taxpayers who ante up for roughly $25 billion in agricultural subsidies each year ($4 billion for milk alone in 2006); then as consumers who pay higher prices at the checkout counter because we can't take advantage of low-price imports.
[...snip...]
So, how can we get more Americans to look up from their feedbags and demand that Congress restore some sense to the marketplace? I recommend a little truth-in-packaging. Just as food manufacturers now list their products' ingredients and nutritional value, they should also disclose their "free-market" value.
To wit, every product whose ingredients benefit from a subsidy should include the following language on the label:
"This product has been subsidized by the U.S. government at taxpayer expense. For more information, please visit usda.gov."
And every product that benefits from tariff protection should have the following language on the label:
"This product is protected from foreign competition by U.S. import tariffs. Its price is higher as a result. For more information, please visit usitc.gov."
[...snip...]
(Excerpt) Read more at ideas.theatlantic.com ...
And while we’re at it, how about we eliminate employee withholding for payroll taxes and require everyone to write a check at the end of the year for their taxes. Think that would wake people up?
I think there are a lot of Americans who are clueless about the cost of food and the supposed bargains they find in grocery stores. I think it’s a big hoax. It seems to me that when stores offer discounts, they are not really discounts at all but instead a roll back to prices they should have been all along. That is why I do a lot of comparison shopping. I actually take the time to do this and am able to save a lot of money by doing so. I also clip coupons and watch for major sales of things I need or want. I urge all to comparison shop whenever possible. It will save you a lot of money in the long run. Also take into account the gas mileage you use. A discount is not worth it if you use more gas than the discounted item costs. Take things like that into account. Try to do one stop shopping so you do it all at once instead of making a lot of trips. This will also save you money on gas. Think before you buy and always remember: let the buyer beware. If a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is and there might be some hidden reason(s) for it. Be a smart shopper and a savvy consumer.
Rant warning:
On farm milk prices have (pardon the pun) tanked. They are back to the levels of 2003, when we sold our cows. However, feed and fuel costs have spiked. Even the vet charges mileage now, when once upon a time he charged a flat rate per farm call.
Out of all that supposed wretched excess for commodities, how much do you imagine actually goes to the farmer?
There is no government price support for milk until it bottoms out about $9 a hundred. Cost of production for many family farms in the upper midwest is at least $10 per hundred pounds. Perhaps into the $12 per hundred range.
There is, however, a milk income loss program that is supposed to fill the gap from about $9 to $10.10. As I recall that’s what it was in 2003.
That $5 a bushel corn from the ethanol boom is now down to about $3.50. However, fertilizer prices have about doubled.
A big part of the run up in commodities was “funny money” from market fund managers — investors who took money out of other areas and gambled in commodities for awhile. Especially in wheat. They have pulled out and our price for wheat keeps dropping.
I’ve noticed food prices seemed to have leveled off or gone down some at the store, BTW. Milk that was over $3 a gallon was $1.99 this week for 2 percent.
If there were easy answers to farm costs and food prices I think smarter folks than us or the writer of the article would have come up with some ideas by now.
Rant over.
Here in Michigan Spartan food stores are promoting locally grown foods. I’m also finding lots of locally grown foods at Meijer stores. The yellow onions I usually buy are grown less than 20 miles from here.
Everyone write a check at the end of the year for taxes.
Yep. THat’s what we have to do. Also for property taxes. And our state has shifted the tax burden from home owners to landowners.
Thanks. Much appreciated.
(Rant #2 over)
I grew up in farm country and I know that the small farmers aren’t the ones getting the big subsidies.
Started by FDR during the Depression. Paying to dump milk, plow under crops and not plant at all. Thanks again LIBTARDS!
Food always goes up as everything else. Heck I am paying 4.20 for a 1/2 gallon that used to cost 1.00. But the stamp used to cost .15 cents and now costs 41 cents. I believe a piece of candy used to cost a penny but now is 75 cents. Get over it. Prices go up and up. But so does salaries. Back he candy was a penny...hourly wage was about 50 cents.
yeah, corn was $2/bu in 1950 and is now about $3.50/bu. What a sky rocket in price. Those dang greedy farmers expecting to make a profit.
The ethanol lobby bought Osama lock stock, and barrel.
Yep. An inflation free economy is pure fantasy. When I started driving a gallon of gas was between 60 and 80 cents and minimum wage was $3.35 an hour.
All we can realistically do is try to keep costs in balance with wages.
“consumers who pay higher prices at the checkout counter because we can’t take advantage of low-price imports.”
Imports? As in imported food from china?
Next time you go shopping, read the labels.
In the winter time we get a lot of fresh fruit & vegetables from Chile. It is summer down there.
BTW, our farmers do a bit of export sales, too.
For what it's worth....
I shop pretty closely at my local grocery store, also at the local Target.
In general "Sale" prices at the grocery store, are roughly equal to the regular price at Target. The difference is that Target has nowhere near the selection of the grocery store.
So, if I'm buying Paper Towels (or TP, or whatever), and Target has the brand / type that I want....I'm in business. Typically though, it only has "this, or that"...not a lot of choices. The grocery store "premium" is because they stock two dozen other brands, styles, sizes, colors, whatever.
And, contrary to popular belief, and as of a few months ago (the last time I really, really, comparison shopped hard)....my local Target equals or beats the heck out of everyone, including WalMart and Costco. Especially with the fact that Target sends me $20 or more in coupons (usually for stuff I want) in the mail every other week or so. :-) I'm not bashing any of the other places - I'm just reporting on what I've found.
If people and folks have developed a system that works for them and it has succeeded for them then by all means they should continue to use it. Whatever works, right?
exactly.
What about the social security tax? Why is it ‘split in half’ except to hide from the employees how much they are actually paying? It comes from the same source, so the whole amount should be visible.
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