What is the Democratic view on farm subsidies?

[David S]

Why should we pay farmers to grow nothing? That's never made much sense to me whatsoever.

^^^^^
I'm not a Democrat either but it seems to me that the honorable Senator from Florida is quite correct.

[David S]

Why should we pay farmers to grow nothing? That's never made much sense to me whatsoever.

To stabilize the price on the market dumbass.

But I'd rather have them retrained to do something else.

Do you have a problem with cheap food?

Could farmers be kept in business by selling food at a loss?

I'd rather simply retrain a third of our farmers to do something else and conserve the land, or, on the other side, have the government do a better job at buying up surplus food (on the market, to increase prices) and sending it to poor countries.

Then again, since the world has a food surplus anyway, I think the first option makes more sense, economically and ecologically.

Isn't it the subsidies that keeps more farmers in business than is required to produce enough food?

[David S]

The more I learn about economics, the more I become in favor of a free market.

MWAHAHAHA, our insidious plan is working...errr...I mean...pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!

Hah.

Well, I doubt I'll ever be totally libertarian... I personally think that the government can do good things (mainly centered around rectifying market failure), just not as much as hardcore economic liberals do.

Like Mr Dibble, I am delighted to hear of your shift toward market economics. Possibly I can give you a little further push in that direction. You mention government rectifying market failures, but take a look at the numbers Jfern published with regard to how much states get back for their dollar. Is the government really rectifying market failure, or just oiling the squeeky gear, or carrying out some bureaucratic redistribution scheme, or rewarding political allies? The Federal government has no business being involved under our constitution.