Re: RE: Farm "subsidy" data base

[Eugene Coyle <eugenecoyle@xxxxxxx>]

My argument is that selling an undifferentiated commodity on the market
-- like many farm commodities -- actually results in prices that only cover
marginal costs, not average costs.  The difference has to be made
up somehow.  That is what I see as the idea behind farm subsidies.
    I agree with you that the clout of the Farm Bureau,
et. al. shape both the size and destination of the money.

The other aspect of this is the international -- keeping corn production high (through the farm subsidy) ruins farmers in other countries.

Another aspect is the subsidy for turning corn into automobile fuel, a subsidy for ADM, our friendly supporter of NPR..  Why subsidize driving when people are hungry?

Gene Coyle

"Devine, James" wrote:

> Gene
> writes: >I put "subsidy" in quotation marks because I think of farm payments
> as covering the overhead costs, while proceeds from crop sales cover the
> out-of-pocket costs of getting a crop.  <I
> don't understand this. Why do you see "subsidies" as covering overhead
> costs? it seems to me that they instead reflect the political clout of
> the Farm Bureau, farm-state senators, etc. "Welfare mothers," on the other
> hand, don't have that kind of clout...Jim
> Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine