Journal pudge's Journal: Free Milk 4
NewsHour had an interesting story about problems in the dairy market caused by increased efficiency and a glut of milk.
One dairy farmer says because he has cows producing milk he can't use, he is losing over $70 per cow per month, because he still needs to feed and maintain those cows. His solution? Have the government take money from successful farms and give it to unsuccessful ones.
Seriously.
He is losing in the market, so he wants the government to "establish a certain amount of allowable growth, facility by facility, dairy farm by dairy farm. And if you exceeded that growth rate, you would pay a market access fee," where those fees would go to dairies that didn't grow.
This might sound shocking to many of us, but the sad thing is that our government does this sort of thing all the time. Legislators can't help themselves. They love micromanaging everything they can, and damn your rights in the process. It's like when state legislator Hans Dunshee (D-44) justified state regulation of animal masseuses with a shrug, saying, "people come to ask us to do things, you know?"
Except this is for the farmers. The unsuccessful farmers, anyway.
Cross-posted on <pudge/*>.
Right out of Atlas Shrugged (Score:2)
Ma Chalmers would be proud.
'Nuff said.
Welfare (Score:2)
The one grooup that gets more governmnet welfare than corporations is farmers. They're used to sucking the government's teat. Hell, sometimes farmers get paid NOT to grow certain crops.
From what I've read, the market for milk is extremely dysfunctional these days and it's probably because of bad regulation. But I don't think taxing the big guy to help the little guy is the answer here, the little guy needs to either find a way to raise his cattle more cheaply, or cut out the middleman who's getting all the
some thoughts (Score:1)
1) This might be like a car dealership complaining it can't move as many cars as its competitors, and they're costing too much sitting on the lot. Um, how about just having fewer cars, at the level at which it actually makes sense for your business? Too obvious I guess.
2) In general the market should decide which and how many businesses in an industry survive. Unless it's a critical industry, to our nation and its culture/lifestyle, and market forces are causing the number of competitors to dwindle to too f
US agricultural subsidies (Score:1)
that raise prices to US consumers, damage the environment, impoverish the 3rd world, distort marker ts, take tax dollars form the poor to give to the rich.
And that doesn't count the export subsidies to compete the Europeans.
I went looking for a definitive number on how much it costs in direct atx dollars - doesn't exist that I can find. Too many programs, bills and appropriations to track.
Get rid of them.