Conspiracy theorys, where do you stand?

[Jerry-B-WI]

Economic libertarianism would eat you alive, along with 99% of Americans. Unregulated capitalism puts all the power into the hands of the people with capital. If you want markets to be fair, they have to be regulated. Elected officials, i.e. the government, are the ones who should be doing the regulating.

Gosh, if we could only find some honest elected officials to regulate that stuff. Did you see what happened to the oil trades 15 minutes before Trump announced the 5 day grace period for blowing up Iran's power pants?

 

[Telemark]

Im not pushing for anarchy. I personally just think in this one issue, the government subsidizing a particular inefficient industry is the wrong play

The problem I have with that is you make it seem like all agricultural subsidies are bad. I don't think that's accurate. I think a lot of changes need to be made, but I also don't think massive radical changes are generally helpful. To be clear: I am saying we should reduce agricultural subsidies, but not eliminate them totally.

Like I said before, we don't need to be subsidizing farmers to grow soybeans for the Chinese market. However, I do believe we should subsidize what we need for our own market. I don't even mind slight increases in food costs as long as there is a correlating increase in food quality. Most Americans could stand to eat less food, and most Americans should probably be eating better quality food. Nutrient levels in vegetables have been crashing. We should do something about this.

 

[Telemark]

Two really good posts above. Can’t add anything other than some of the subsidies were partially started due to Cold War defense concerns. Department of Ag actually built a lot of roads during that period to get U.S. grain to market due to Cold War. Also the subsidized grain was also bought by the gov to use as part of projecting U.S. power to parts of the world that needed to feed starving people. Called it projecting soft power if you are looking for google search terms.

And no, I’m not looking for an argument about USAID. But if I was starving my ass off and got a bag of wheat with an American flag and “Product of USA” written on it I’m counting the US as a friend.

That's very much on line with what I'm saying. US agriculture is not just food. It's also a strategic asset and a national security issue.

 

[Telemark]

Gosh, if we could only find some honest elected officials to regulate that stuff.

They're out there, but they tend not to be charismatic, so they generally don't get elected.

Did you see what happened to the oil trades 15 minutes before Trump announced the 5 day grace period for blowing up Iran's power pants?

No, but it probably won't surprise me. If it was insider trading, they're allowed to do it. If it was leaked information, I'm only pissed off about not having the information myself.

 

[Brian662]

Federal government needs to be castrated and allow state and local government to do their jobs, IMO.

Federal government makes wide sweeping changes without the ability for nuance, it's just not capable of "serving" the people.

 

[Westwind]

When we pump gov't money into ag, where does it go?

Monsanto. ADM. Bayer. Not farmers.

Same as the monewy pumped into student loans for higher ed

CAMPAIGN MONEY REFORM. DO THIS ONE THING. THIS WOULD MAKE TERM LIMITS NOT EVEN MATTER

Citizens United is where it all went wrong.

 

[jsasker007]

Federal government needs to be castrated and allow state and local government to do their jobs, IMO.

Federal government makes wide sweeping changes without the ability for nuance, it's just not capable of "serving" the people.

Except in Minnesota. Please don't let our state government do ONE MORE THING. PLEASE!

 

[Brian662]

Except in Minnesota. Please don't let our state government do ONE MORE THING. PLEASE!

They squandered a massive surplus over the past couple years and are ripe with corruption but still somehow more capable than the feds, IMO. That's a sad reality.

 

[Westwind]

Food manufacturing and ag are more than 20% of gdp