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Originally Posted by 2nd trick op
You raise some valid points, but you've oversimplified the argument and thrown in some of the usual "class warfare" rhetoric.
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Yeah, I should have more clearly sourced Republicans for the class warfare part. They've been at it for decades now.
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Originally Posted by 2nd trick op
As a general rule the less risk involved in a farming operation, and the more labor-intensive that operation, the less-likely it is to be subsidized, The local dairyman managing 50-100 head with one or two part-time employees will get by.
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The price of ALL milk is the result of subsidies. If you sell it, you are being subsidized.
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Originally Posted by 2nd trick op
But a half-section (320 acres) in a price-sensitive crop such as corn or wheat involves more risk. Some farm operators, particularly those not tied to the time-demands of animal husbandry, work full-time outside jobs, or work those jobs seasonally, and most likely have spouses who work, so a loss generates a bigger refund of withheld taxes.
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With very little work, absentee loss-farmers can almost always bring home a healthy crop of those. Not as easy to get farm losses to apply against non-farm income though. Toy farms also have nothing to do with actual agriculture, and the 10-50 acre farms that organic foods and farmers markets have spawned in non-ag regions don't count either. A medium- to average-sized actual wheat or corn farm would have 500 acres planted while having scant if any actual outside (non-family) help. This excludes roving bands of machines such as combines that do one area and then move north to do the next. Many of these more typical farmers would have locked into futures contracts and been covered by crop insurance.
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Originally Posted by 2nd trick op
Part of the cost can also be tied to the point that American agricultural policy has always been tied to the premise of adequate supply as the first concern. Overproduction drives prices down, but the powers that be would rather deal with that than with a shortage.
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Very sensible approach. Famine is bad.
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Originally Posted by 2nd trick op
Finally, I would like to point out that in dealing with tax issues for a number farm families over 15 years of operating a sideline tax business, I never saw a farm loss denied by the IRS. Admittedly, I practiced in the Northeast where most farm operations are small, but a fair amount of what might be called the "overhead" of simple domestic life can be deducted if somebody farms as a sideline.
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Wouldn't have been much affected by means-tested subsidies. And there has been a crackdown on hobby-farms. particularly little toy horsey farms. Wineries may be next. More and more, if you can't show the time and effort and the levels and pursuit of farm-related knowledge to make it look like you're a real, live, honest, genuine business operation, you have a good chance of meeting with an auditor.
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Originally Posted by 2nd trick op
The debacle involved the World Trade Organization, which can hardly be described as a bastion of laissez-faire. No matter which of the major parties controls Congress or the White House, we are likely only to be pushed further into the swamps of "state" and "crony" capitalism -- because we're afraid of going "straight - no chaser".
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Cotton subsidies could and should have been ended early in the Doha Round. There was lack of courage, honesty, and foresight. Things haven't improved much either.
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