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Maggie’s Motivational Pic Thread v2.0 - - New Rules - See Post #1

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Yea, I hate government handouts pandering to groups of voters.

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Yep. I’m a rancher and farmer and HATE the subsidies. But I’ll have to disagree with you that it’s pandering voter. Less than 2% of the population is in the production ag sector. That’s a small enough number that it’s not statistically relevant. Subsidies are about a cheap food supply. We all know what happens when a nation gets hungry. I wish the government would just back out and let the free market dictate what happens. All these subsidies do is keep inefficient producers in business.

Sorry for the rant. Motivational pic thread. Get off high center:
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a good read -
This is a bit of a misleading statistic and is often used as a “scare tactics”, for lack of a better work. Currently, roughly 7000 farms produce over 80% of the food in the US. That number is predicted to go down to less than 5000 by 2050. Subsidies are production based, so it stands to reason that the biggest payment go to the fewest farms. This further solidifies my opinion that subsidies are designed to keep the food supply cheap.

Sadly, my name is on that list. But if I don’t take the subsidies, I’m at a disadvantage to my neighbors who do. If I want to be one of those 5000 farms producing food in 2050, I have to play the game.

On the flip side, what a lot of people don’t understand, is that right now, I’m operating over $1,000,000 worth of equipment just plowing to get the ground ready to plant. My operating budget is close to $10,000,000. We are a family farm. It’s just me and my dad with no hired help. If we profit $1,000,000 in a year, I consider us damn lucky. It’s normally $500,000 or less. That’s a 5% ROI, and up to 10% if I’m lucky. There’s years ROI is negative. On average, we probably have a 3% ROI. No businessman in his right mind would accept ROIs that we do on their investments.

For us, it’s not about the money. I love what I do. I work for myself. I have the freedom to operate how I want. Do the subsidies help? Sure. Could I make it without them? Absolutely. But you wouldn’t like the price you would have to pay to buy your food.

But everything is so highly subsidized. Food, oil, energy, the list goes on. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not defending subsidies, I wish they would go away. Some of my inefficient neighbors would go busted and I could farm more ground. I just like to educate people on what actually goes on in sectors they may not be closely tied to.

That’s all I’m going to say on this topic, because after all, this is a pic thread. If anyone wants to discuss it further, PM me. I’m happy to chat about all things agriculture.
 
This is a bit of a misleading statistic and is often used as a “scare tactics”, for lack of a better work. Currently, roughly 7000 farms produce over 80% of the food in the US. That number is predicted to go down to less than 5000 by 2050. Subsidies are production based, so it stands to reason that the biggest payment go to the fewest farms. This further solidifies my opinion that subsidies are designed to keep the food supply cheap.

Sadly, my name is on that list. But if I don’t take the subsidies, I’m at a disadvantage to my neighbors who do. If I want to be one of those 5000 farms producing food in 2050, I have to play the game.

On the flip side, what a lot of people don’t understand, is that right now, I’m operating over $1,000,000 worth of equipment just plowing to get the ground ready to plant. My operating budget is close to $10,000,000. We are a family farm. It’s just me and my dad with no hired help. If we profit $1,000,000 in a year, I consider us damn lucky. It’s normally $500,000 or less. That’s a 5% ROI, and up to 10% if I’m lucky. There’s years ROI is negative. On average, we probably have a 3% ROI. No businessman in his right mind would accept ROIs that we do on their investments.

For us, it’s not about the money. I love what I do. I work for myself. I have the freedom to operate how I want. Do the subsidies help? Sure. Could I make it without them? Absolutely. But you wouldn’t like the price you would have to pay to buy your food.
Disagree. Food would cost the same. What would change is where people pay for it. Now it only appears cheap (in the store) because I'm also paying through the IRS for that food. Now about the large percentage of people who don't pay income taxes, I'm buying a portion of their food too. Wealth redistribution 101.
 
Disagree. Food would cost the same. What would change is where people pay for it. Now it only appears cheap (in the store) because I'm also paying through the IRS for that food. Now about the large percentage of people who don't pay income taxes, I'm buying a portion of their food too. Wealth redistribution 101.
Food prices would go up. Subsidies don’t change what it costs to produce. First rule of business is if you can’t cover fixed costs, close the doors. But your preaching to the choir. We’re paving peoples roads, putting their kids through school, making their energy more affordable. The government gets a lot of mileage out of that “promote the general welfare of the people” statement.
 
This is a bit of a misleading statistic and is often used as a “scare tactics”, for lack of a better work. Currently, roughly 7000 farms produce over 80% of the food in the US. That number is predicted to go down to less than 5000 by 2050. Subsidies are production based, so it stands to reason that the biggest payment go to the fewest farms. This further solidifies my opinion that subsidies are designed to keep the food supply cheap.

Sadly, my name is on that list. But if I don’t take the subsidies, I’m at a disadvantage to my neighbors who do. If I want to be one of those 5000 farms producing food in 2050, I have to play the game.

On the flip side, what a lot of people don’t understand, is that right now, I’m operating over $1,000,000 worth of equipment just plowing to get the ground ready to plant. My operating budget is close to $10,000,000. We are a family farm. It’s just me and my dad with no hired help. If we profit $1,000,000 in a year, I consider us damn lucky. It’s normally $500,000 or less. That’s a 5% ROI, and up to 10% if I’m lucky. There’s years ROI is negative. On average, we probably have a 3% ROI. No businessman in his right mind would accept ROIs that we do on their investments.

For us, it’s not about the money. I love what I do. I work for myself. I have the freedom to operate how I want. Do the subsidies help? Sure. Could I make it without them? Absolutely. But you wouldn’t like the price you would have to pay to buy your food.

But everything is so highly subsidized. Food, oil, energy, the list goes on. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not defending subsidies, I wish they would go away. Some of my inefficient neighbors would go busted and I could farm more ground. I just like to educate people on what actually goes on in sectors they may not be closely tied to.

That’s all I’m going to say on this topic, because after all, this is a pic thread. If anyone wants to discuss it further, PM me. I’m happy to chat about all things agriculture.
Old Man with a gun is implying that farm subsidies are pandering for votes. I live in a farming and ranching Community in central Texas where most are just scratching out a living. With that said, they are not looking for handouts. In the 2016 election 93% of voters voted straight republican. Farm subsidies are for a far different purpose than buying votes on a large scale.
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Re: EV, Lithium, and such discussion. Rather than list a bunch of citations, I suggest that you google, "slavery and lithium batteries", then google "are lithium batteries really green?" an amazing amount of literature on child slavery, displacement of villages, rape of the land and spoilage of water. THEN make up your own mind about the subject. I know that there are large impacts from other industries as well, but worrying about wether it costs more to charge at a commercial station rather than at home, is just so shallow a concern. Like an0other person noted, people don't want to know where their beef comes from (or chicken).
Slavery is everywhere I believe there are more slaves today than anytime in history. Most of that cheap shit everyone needs from asia has slave labor tied to it.
All these arguments are bull shit.
Everything can be produced safely and without slaves if the governments just got out of the the way.
 
Slavery is everywhere I believe there are more slaves today than anytime in history. Most of that cheap shit everyone needs from asia has slave labor tied to it.
All these arguments are bull shit.
Everything can be produced safely and without slaves if the governments just got out of the the way.
Why don’t you just take your righteous indignation to your own thread and leave this one, as your posts are not appropriate to the thread theme. Plus, no pictures… 🙄🙄🙄

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Food prices would not go up. You just said it, subsidies don't change what it costs to produce. Prices in the STORE would go up, but that isn't the same thing.
Food prices would go up. Subsidies don’t change what it costs to produce. First rule of business is if you can’t cover fixed costs, close the doors. But your preaching to the choir. We’re paving peoples roads, putting their kids through school, making their energy more affordable. The government gets a lot of mileage out of that “promote the general welfare of the people” statement.
 
Food prices would not go up. You just said it, subsidies don't change what it costs to produce. Prices in the STORE would go up, but that isn't the same thing.
You’re logic is flawed. He implied that food would be bought in different places, i.e. direct from farmers. If that’s the case, without subsidies, farmers will price the food based on cost of production plus desired profit margin. Subsidies allow a farmer to accept a lower price for their products, because they make up the shortfall. In his situation he mentioned, the haves will buy food direct from the farmer at a higher price. The have nots will not have access to that food because they can’t afford it and no one is going to sell at a loss.

And we haven’t even talked about the government dicking with our markets. Through foreign policy, including tariffs, trade embargoes, and retaliation from our foreign customers, they can wreck our markets overnight. A portion of the subsidies is to make up for what they screw up.

I’m done. Carry on with the motivation.
 
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