Trump's $867 Billion Farm Bill....Is Socialism....

Isn't it?

 

I ask....

because I thought it weird that Trump bragged about it at his last campaign rally and all his "people" cheered.

I thought hand-outs like that were a no-no.

 

I'll bump this again, as I'm curious...

not so much about the definition of "socialism"...

just the general idea that this isn't exactly capitalism at work...Food Stamps and stuff...support for "rural communities"....

I would think Trump supporters would not cheer for this sort of thing. And yet they do.

 

I don’t cheer. . There shouldn’t be such a thing as a farm bill. It’s an abomination. But just try getting rid of food stamps. I dare you...

 

Trump hurt the soybean farmers.

 

I have never cared much for labels. It is too easy to generalize and call it all good or all bad.

There are some good parts to the farm bill. When you subsidize, it enables farmers to produce reliably year after year regardless of the weather and other factors. That invariably ends up with surpluses which are generally put to good use.

However, there are parts I do not like. They pay farmers to use their land for uses which have little relation to food production such as providing habitats for animals, etc. Most of them relate to hunting. I have nothing against hunting. I am just not convinced the federal government should be subsidizing it.

 

Only if you consider every farm bill since the Great Depression to be socialist.

 

That's the purpose of the Futures market. The gov't does not need to be involved in any direct payments to farmers.

There are other expenditures such as crop research, and even that should be done via private enterprise.

congresscritters learned a lesson from the farm bills of the 1930s. That lesson was that is got them votes. That was bad news for tax payers. Payments are not so much socialism as it is welfare.

 

This isn't the age old federal farm subsidies.. this is in addition to that because Trump screwed the soybean farmers and they can't sell their soybeans to China. Its cost them hundreds of millions not to get those beans to market.

 

The futures market does not encourage over production. Without over production, there will be periods where there is under production.

 

This is just the soybean farmers he screwed.

 

They expanded subsidies to include neices, newphews and first cousins of farmers regardless of whether they work on the farm.

We must not have enough uncles in farming.

So we have to motivate people to get their uncles to farm.

 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/economy/china-agrees-to-buy-5-million-tons-of-us-soybeans-a-day-after-talks-in-Washington

China agrees to buy 5 million tons of US soybeans after talks in Washington

 

This is just about the US soybean farmers who won't be allowed to sell their soybeans to China.

 

Well thank God Trump capitulated... It was going to cost SC soybean farmers a cool $187 million.

 

LOL.

Capitulated? I guess the details are another thing you're unfamiliar with.

 

You can drive through most any heavily agricultural area and you will see locally owned fields divided up using different products and methods. Not sure how you can make that favor anyone in particular.

 

What would you call it?

As I said, I'm not really asking about the specific definition of all these "buzzwords"....

but it doesn't seem like capitalism to me for the government to be handing out money, food stamps, etc., to people who could get a job doing something more profitable.

 

Somebody has to produce food. There is barely a country in the world that doesn't subsidize it's farmers in one way or the other.

 

A little. Not enough to get worked up over. Ever heard the term “delayed gratification” ? I’d rather have fair trade in the long run.

Don’t fall for the “poor soybean farmer” narrative. It’s fake news. The main reason commodity prices are low is plain old oversupply. It’s ridiculous to berate Trump for this when all past trade policies have screwed the whole country as well as farmers.

 

Somebody has to produce clothes. Some do it successfully, others fail.

Somebody has to sell food (restaurants, grocery stores). Some do it successfully, others fail.

Some farmers are billionaires, some are small time people that need help, food stamps, etc.

Meanwhile:
https://www.inc.com/john-white/how-corporate-welfare-is-killing-small-businesses.html


And yet, I see Trump supporters all the time pointing the finger in one certain direction with intense disdain....and ignore all the rest of reality.

 

Donald Trump, the welfare king

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...ory.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.63cba0c1e53a