Farmers: Get a Job!

Future of Freedom Foundation ^ | February 2002 | Sheldon Richman

[Doomonyou]

Unfortunately, my dad couldn't make a living at farming so he got a job as a mail carrier. I resent the title of this thread. Farming is a job. A very tough job.

Give My Best to your Dad. It is a very tough job. The title yanked my chain also.

[ken21]

you're correct, but many people don't take the time to investigate what the truth is. for them, it's shoot from the hip.

they'll figure it out when development and environmentalism deplete american agriculture. then we'll depend on imports and international agribusiness.

then they'll be whining for the good ol' days.

[APBaer]

"beer has to be in there somewhere also"

No, you can't buy beer, only rent beer.

[Don Joe]

"Don, whose policies have allowed this outrage to evolve?"

Decades of socialists.

"It sure does not sound like conservativism."

It isn't.

"Total government control over our food supply (farmers)....we need to change this...but where to start???"

Where we don't start is by leaving 99% of the game rigged, then pulling the lifeline out of the farmers and telling 'em "now sink or swim!" in our best Josef Stalin voice.

[Doomonyou]

But if the government subsidizes farmers (at taxpayer expense), then to some measure the government controls farmers. A government-controlled food supply is not exactly a comforting thought.

You get no argument from me on that.

Kind of like people on welfare (at taxpayer expense) is not exactly a comforting thought.

[Don Joe]

"We've got the best agricultural system on earth - in all of history - and we're in danger of giving it up"

No, we're not "in danger" of giving it up, we're in the process of giving it up. When even self-proclaimed "conservatives" rail against domestic agriculture, and wax eloquent in their advocacy of policies of dependence on our enemies for the food we put in our mouths, the game is over, folks. It's just a question of how long we can keep coasting before we're all forced to confront the brutal reality.

200+ years, we'll, I guess it was better than nothing.

[APBaer]

"The guy obviously never bailed hay"

I don't think anyone ever bailed hay
Sailors bail water
Farmers bale hay

[c-b 1]

But the farmer is no longer seen as an honest, hard- working keeper of the land: Now, we're portrayed as the people who poison the land, who pollute the water, and fleece the taxpayers with government handouts. The environmentalists are now seen as the keepers of the land.

That is starting to change, there are stories out there exposing that the envirowacko movement is not what it has been portrayed to be. It is up to us to keep the pressure on, by posting every article that exposes enviro-lies everywhere we can on the internet, calling talk radio about them, and making sure are elected officials at all levels are aware of them.

[lara]

Thank you. I really appreciate it.

[Doomonyou]

What if your barn is flooded?

[Doomonyou]

Dennis Hastert's district

I'm Jealous!

[Doomonyou]

Dennis Hastert's district

I'm Jealous!

[FreedomPoster]

I live right next to Bob Barr's district. It's as suburban as you get.

[lara]

Thanks! I like Dennis. An ex-wrestling coach. It seems a lot of coaches are conservative. I wonder why that is? Mike Ditka is my favorite. You should have heard him campaigning for Bush in Illinois. The hard working farmers in the rural area loved him and voted for Bush. (I thought I better work the farmers in considering the topic.) But seriously, the rural people are very conservative.

[Dan from Michigan]

Well, glad to see that the suburbs in Georgia don't have as many IDIOTS as the suburbs in Southeast Michigan(Oakland County and Macomb County got GORED, Rural Areas went for Bush).

[Doomonyou]

My Pop grew up in Carbon Cliff. We visited when I was a kid (many moons ago!) Nice country. I wish we had a Hastert out here, we're stuck with three socialists, Woolsey, Boxer, and Fienstien. (Barf alert.)

[Polybius]

I am not a farmer. My father, grandfather and great-grandfathers were not farmers.

That being said, farming is one of the noble occupations that a nation needs to perpetuate to keep it's self identity.

If a historian goes back and tries to decide at which point the noble Roman Republic began it's decline, he will find that the decline began when the independent small farmers were wiped out during the Punic Wars. The widows of the citizen farmer soldiers could not meet the debt on the farms. Roman farms became "latifundias", large farms owned by the rich (read corporations). The bedrock of the Roman Republic was thus destroyed.

The U.S. subsidizes firms that build submarines and military aircraft because they are vital to the health of our nation.

So should it be with the independent farmer.

[I_Love_My_Husband]

I say, if it's socialism for farmers FINE! I don't get the resentment on this thread against FARMERS for goodness sake!

Although I have always lived in a city, my fiancee who's a web designer was raised in the country and lives in a place that used to be a farm! However, he thinks all farmers are rich! Which is ridiculous...grumble grumble grumble.

I grew up in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. There were orange groves that smelled great, there were even small farms near where I lived.

All paved over, for what reason? There were even horses there in the 70's.

All gone. All paved over. All concrete now. All ugly and smog now and illegal immigrants. I guess that's why I support farming totally completely. In fact, I would take it further, I would probably outlaw selling any farmland to developers. Call me a socialist when it comes to farming. I don't care. I want to be sure that there's food on the table for many centuries to come in our great nation. Once the farm land is gone, it never comes back, and it's heartbreaking.

[lara]

Near the Quad Cities? I grew up on a farm in Iowa near by. Too bad you couldn't live there. But we need people like you in California. Can you imagine what CA would be like without any conservative influence? Scary thought. As for boxer and feinstein, you have my sympathy. We got rid of Carol Mosley-Braun (probably better known here as, Carol Mostly Fraud) so there's hope for CA.

[I_Love_My_Husband]

lara, I live in CA, in SF as a matter of fact, and it really saddens me about your dad having to work for the post office (bleh!). I can't say I'm the majority view here BUT, back in the days when I was pc all the lefties I knew DID support farms and farmers 150%. So even though I'm on the repub side, I still support farms, farmers, I shop at the farmers market (great fun), I shop at the health food store (all locally grown produce). I will NEVER change my views on farming and farmers and it's just unbelievable that some unenlightened people are here on this thread saying throw the farmers out to the wolves. In fact, I wish there were MORE farmers!