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...I don't think that working types are that stupid to actually believe that the poor ate their cake, if so why they prefer endless blame-the-poor-feel-better-about-yourself anyway?
If you have to scapegoat someone, why not someone who cannot defend themselves? After all, bullies never pick on someone bigger and stronger, now do they?
Everything is always more complicated than it initially seems, that is for certain. I take issue with the political nature of ethanol subsidies in general though. There is a disingenuous aspect to making people believe you are providing them relief from high gas prices, while implying you are acting in an environmentally responsible fashion, when all along you are simply shifting costs from fuel buyers to food buyers and the environmental sustainability is highly questionable as well. These policies seem to have more to do with getting votes than improving the US economically or environmentally.
If you take this approach and tenaciously pursue it, you have a bright future. Subsidies are really nothing but a repudiation of the market. Now again following along with the idea, its complicated. It is not always bad to do so since the market sometimes follows addictions or plain stupidity, which we know are bad. Smoking should be discouraged with an anti-subsidy. However on the other hand the power implicit to do right is a cover to do wrong as we see with other subsidies and anti-subsidies.
If you take this approach and tenaciously pursue it, you have a bright future. Subsidies are really nothing but a repudiation of the market. Now again following along with the idea, its complicated. It is not always bad to do so since the market sometimes follows addictions or plain stupidity, which we know are bad. Smoking should be discouraged with an anti-subsidy. However on the other hand the power implicit to do right is a cover to do wrong as we see with other subsidies and anti-subsidies.
Yes, seeing past the smoke and mirrors without prejudice is a tricky thing to do! Not settling for easy answers as a means to validate one's own beliefs requires constant vigilance.
Unintended consequences abound when dealing with complex systems. I'd like to think all the taxes on cigarettes are an anti-subsidy and somewhat effective, even if the intent was only to raise revenues.
Is electrocution how you got your power to foretell the future? Have the twitches and smoke from your ears faded yet?
Massive fail.
The ethanol subsidies ended.
Here, special just for you....
The Definition of Subsidy and State Aid: WTO and EC Law in Comparative Perspective
Subsidies are pecuniary aid, requiring the transfer of cash in some form, whether actual cash payments or tax credits.
The idiot who wrote the article for Mother Jerkoff even admitted the subsidies ended.You want to go before the WTO, GATT, a State court or a federal district court and argue you case? They'd laugh you out. If you're going to move the goal-posts --- and don't hurt your back doing so unless you have Obamacare --- then you might as well say consumers are subsidizing all business merely by purchasing their goods or services.The Renewable Fuel Standard is not a subsidy, but it is an example of Soviet-style Command Economics with production levels mandated by government.
The initial subsidies did plenty of damage. The new policies continue the trend.
A subsidy by any other name!
Rather than hurling insults and infantile name calling, address whether this is accurate (a yes or no will suffice, instead of your usual pontification and self-aggrandizing):
After a flirtation with reason last spring, the Obama EPA has signed off on the absurd, abysmal Renewable Fuel Standard established under Bush a couple of years ago—ensuring that farmers will continue to devote vast swaths of land to GHG-intensive corn, of which huge portion will ultimately be set aflame to power cars—but not before being transformed into liquid fuel in an energy-intensive process.
Deficit hawks, environmentalists, and food processors are celebrating the expiration of the ethanol tax credit. This corporate handout gave $0.45 to ethanol producers for every gallon they produced and cost taxpayers $6 billion in 2011. So why did the powerful corn ethanol lobby let it expire without an apparent fight? The answer lies in legislation known as the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), which creates government-guaranteed demand that keeps corn prices high and generates massive farm profits. Removing the tax credit but keeping the RFS is like scraping a little frosting from the ethanol-boondoggle cake.
The RFS mandates that at least 37 percent of the 2011-12 corn crop be converted to ethanol and blended with the gasoline that powers our cars…[As a result] the current price of corn on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange is about $6.50 per bushel—almost triple the pre-mandate level."
Last edited by shaker281; 10-03-2013 at 11:59 PM..
Food is raised, delivered and sold using oil & gas for machinery... When the price of oil rises, food does so accordingly. When oil drops the price of food remains the same and all those involved make more money. Then oil raises again and food increases....
Food prices aren't rising very fast. Quit buying overpriced processed food in tiny packages from greedy corporations in overpriced grocery stores. Quit buying whatever you feel like regardless of season. Shop at better grocery stores, buy stuff that's on sale and preferably in season, cook it yourself, and don't let anything go to waste.
I just got back from the grocery store. 4 large bananas cost me $1.00. I bought a 5 lb. bag of apples for $2. A couple loaves of wheat bread on sale for $1 each. A bunch of frozen vegetables for $1 per lb. 4 oz. of raspberries for $1.25. Frozen Pacific salmon for $4 a lb. Radishes and carrots at 99 cents a lb. A dozen eggs for $1.19. A whole rotisserie chicken for $5. How much does an average size russet potato cost when you buy a 10 lb. bag? 25 cents? How about a serving of rice out of a 15 lb. bag? 10 cents?
You guys freaking out over grocery prices kill me. Yeah, I see a bunch of ridiculous prices when I go grocery shopping too, but I don't buy those things. The only reason they charge ridiculous prices for some stuff is because people pay it.
A lot of fast food places are $8-10 for a combo meal now. That's ridiculous given how much the ingredients cost. A lot of fast food places have indeed gotten pretty expensive compared to the cost of the ingredients. Greedy corporations trying to extract as much money out of your pocket as possible...you don't have to let them. I can make dinner for a family of 4 with quality ingredients for $5.
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