Why don't people on the right seem upset when farmers get government aid? (In the USA)
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Because of the REASON, or I should say because of the person behind the reason they need Welfare help.
Because those people on the right are usually invested in the stock market, of which those farmers crops are a part. If the farmers fail, the investors lose money.
Because there a lots of other things to worry about. I’ve never been a fan of subsidies…whether it is to farmers or to power companies…I think they are wasted money. To pay a farmer to not grow a crop or to artificially boost the profits is just wrong. To pay billion dollar power companies to use solar and wind is just wrong.
So some people on the right don’t believe you should pay farmers not to grow crops? Well at least that view is consistent. I happen to believe that the primary reason for the absence of outrage is that when you mention the word “farmer”, it isn’t a black man or Mexican who comes to mind. Imagine the reaction at the suggestion that we pay black folks or even white folks “not to work”. Why do farmers get a pass? Well it’s the one occupation where EVERYONE understands that unless you have REALLY BIG bucks you are going to work like a slave for just about the same wages a slave might expect. The farm situation is just another illustration of how we are victimized by capitalism. It’s like everything else—from the tax codes through the banking laws. For example, we offer subsidies to prop up the small mom & pop farmers while it is the corporate farm conglomerates which collect the lion’s share of that money. It should actually be incorporated into the pledge of allegiance—“one nation where the little guy gets screwed, etc.” Then we should teach our children WHY in a world with ⅓rd of the population going to bed hungry, we can pay people not to grow food?
I think most people imagine a farm as a small operation: a family working their fields with a few helpers – and everyone wants to help the “little guys”. Except…
They aren’t little guys any more. Farms now are multi-million dollar ventures. They have millions invested in equipment. You can safely think of them as manufacturing facilities.
Food is too cheap here and that is partially due to the subsidies. If subsidies stopped and prices were to rise maybe our health care system would be paying out less to treat obesity related diseases.
In my experience here they have millions in machinery but they don’t live the millionaire life. Maybe 1 out of 50 farms have really nice homes built. The rest are just modest farm houses. They don’t drive BMWs or even brand new trucks every year.
I don’t understand the economics of farming in this country but I have been told they benefit financial from food stamp purchases and that’s why families get so much when we qualify for them.
We have a history of taking care of our farmers and that’s fine except when our idiot president starts an unnecessary tradewar with China to proove he has the biggest dick, and it hurts the farmers. THEN he’s going to spend billions of our money bailing them out because of his little game.
Because farm aid is white people getting helped. Welfare is (mostly) black and brown people getting aid.
This isn’t rocket science to figure out.
Well, it’s certainly not this^^
Preserving the old homestead and small farm way of life appeals to conservative values on the surface.
@KNOWITALL perhaps in Missouri that’s true, but in Georgia, the farmers and ag people in just about every county in the state (with the exception of the 16-county metro Atlanta area) are right wing republicans that consistently vote that way.
Same in Kansas @elbanditoroso. And.most if the general population is right wing and our policies are embarrassing.
I have new hope with our new Dem governor tho!
I’ve never met a Democratic farmer and I’ve met many. They’ve all been hardcore Republicans.
Most I have met including family members who owned and operated real farms (not hobby farms) were democrats. Go to the farmlands in places like Ohio and you will see that. It’s a living and their politics often just reflect the dominant politics of the area.
There are probably a lot of people on the right who disagree with this but they love trump so much they let him get away with desperate political moves like this so as not to lose future votes. Stomach and votes first before principles.
It’s the same hypocrisy that makes the right wing say that Obamacare is illegal and should be gotten rid of – but god forbid someone takes away their Medicare !!!
I think it’s because there’s a perception of farmers being very hard working, up at dawn, working all day. I’m not saying it’s a false perception.
It doesn’t surprise me that farmers are all Republicans. They are the one segment of the society that REALLY gets played. Many of them are people as Dutch says who can have on paper millions of dollars in land and equipment, yet sustain repetitive negative worth, living in perpetual debt with them and their families working additional part time jobs. I once asked a farm girl how her and her folks could stand it. And do you know what she said “Look at me. Have you ever seen anyone happier?” I’m still confused.
Oh, it’s like any other business. You manage your finances and assets wisely you’ll be comfortable. In some few cases you’ll actually be wealthy. But then shit like this hits them, or a drought or flood. I would really hate to be a farmer. But I’d like it at the same time.
“Most I have met including family members who owned and operated real farms (not hobby farms) were democrats. Go to the farmlands in places like Ohio and you will see that.”
You’ve met a handful of people. Anecdotes are useless.
—Every rural county in Ohio went to Trump in 2016.
—Every Ohio US House seat is Republican except for a handful around cities.
That’s the same throughout the midwest.
@Call_Me_Jay It wasn’t always that way though, Jay. Almost every real farmer I know is a Democrat, including the ones in my own family. Before 2016, it was much different.
“Just two years ago, the Show-Me state had Democratic officeholders spread throughout state government. Offices of the governor, secretary of state, treasurer, auditor, attorney general and U.S. Senate were all in Democratic hands.”
McCaskill blamed her defeat not on her own campaign, but on the Democratic Party for abandoning its moderate constituents.
“This demand for purity, this looking down your nose at people who want to compromise, is a recipe for disaster for the Democrats,” she told NPR in an interview aired Friday. “Will we ever get to a majority in the Senate again, much less to 60, if we do not have some moderates in our party?”
Aid and paying farmers to not grow crops are not the same thing at all.
farmers are paid to not grow crops for a variety of reasons. One is the land has been leeched and needs a rest.
Aid is paid to farmers who have suffered disaster. Crops can’t be grown. The government helps them the same as helping neighborhoods recover from natural disasters.
I know scads of farmers, and none of them are big business. Every boy in my third grade class had been shoulder deep in a cow at least once, and now most of them have kids and grandkids who are farmers.
Also, when farmers need aid after emergency weather events, it involves lots more than a lost crop.
Damaged buildings, equipment, fencing, and livestock are involved. Some crops are grown to feed livestock, which will otherwise perish. Livestock can be scattered or killed in major weather events. Damage to structures can mean loss of hog litters, calves, fowl.
Raising free range chickens means requiring a large area for them to feed and roam. If that area is flooded the birds must be sacrificed or sold at a loss.
Aid to farmers encompasses a lot, all necessity.
While it is true not many farmers are driving Johnny poppers anymore, it does not mean they are conglomerates that can take a loss and write it off. There is a domino effect which includes loss of foreign trade, and your dinner table.
Every farmer I know has a personal relationship with their crops and livestock.
Lots of Midwest farmers this season have more than one day in this year sat down and wept audibly over damage, death, and losses. It also involves hired workers, who won’t be this year.
It is not welfare. What they work hard for is effected in a big way, and includes losses involving more than the work of a season or two.
Most consumers have no idea how they too benefit from the aid which goes to farmers after emergencies are declared. Without that aid it would affect a huge number of city jobs and wages.
@Patty_Melt This disaster was planned by the Orange Haired Stable Genius, it was not a flood, storms or a natural disaster. We have farmers here that don’t have a customer for their soybeans (it was China) Russia will sell the soybeans to China instead.
Oh, Orange haired’s BFF is undermining the USA farmer because orange want to feel powerful like grabbing P U S S Y.
@Call_Me_Jay Auto union members from the rust belt also flocked to Trump. There is not a debate they were traditionally democrats. The stereotype that all farmers are republicans just isn’t so.
@Tropical And many farmers will sacrifice because they feel he’ll get a better deal. Thats the truth. These same families that have pride in going to war, and sending their kids. Trump knows his base well.
@KNOWITALL Selling the farm is not the way to run a business.
Your high horse opinion is SHITTY !
The way you see it they (the farmers) should fall on the sword because the ORANGE haired wants to “Show who is boss !”
China thinks he is trying to take sovereignty away, he is trying to do that and it is not working (he did on on the Apprentice but the was made up TV).
Willi, you said “this” emergency.
I don’t know what emergency is up your rectum, but I was not addressing any particular one when I said aid to farmers is not the same as subsidies paid to not plant crops. OP does not address a specific emergency, but I can tell you right NOW this minute, friends of mine face the emergency of miles and miles of farmland under water.
This means buildings ruined, machines ruined, crops not planted, miles upon miles of fencing to be replaced, many homes which will need extensive repair, or total rebuild.
The way you so love to bring up Pussy grabbing, I get the impression you wish you had one just so you could offer it up.
You said nothing which relates to the solid facts I took the time to share. All you did was post an emotional rant which means nothing and solves nothing.
@Patty_Melt He should be registered as a sexual predator and he thinks that’s okay “cause he is charge ” and will use executive privilege to get off.
@KNOWITALL I have friends that have family farms that are land grants with George Washington’s signature; they may not make it and you think that is fine because THE HOLY PRESIDENT and attempted dictator is your hero and heart throb.
@Patty_Melt You are up the the President’s rectum.
The emergency it the TARIFFS or don’t you read the news.
I read the question. It said nothing about tariffs.
Are you drunk? Is that why you are preaching your own agenda instead of discussing the question? Is that why you are being trollish and trying to pick fights?
Man, go take a nap.
I do not understand the reference to orange hair.
Donald Trump does not have orange hair, and never has.
@Patty_Melt I think you are in a vacuum !
The tariffs by TRUMP “old orange hair” KILLED the sale of USA crops to China! And Trump’s BFF Putin will sell all the crops to China they want !
Zero dollars to USA and Trump is HAPPY HAPPY !
The question was not about farmers’ political leanings. It was about perception.
In regards to helping the impoverished with government aid, the common theme (that I hear from the right) is, the impoverished are lazy, drug addicts, who want to get government aid without ever having a job. I NEVER hear a word about farmers getting government aid. Not a peep.
In fact, the only thing I have ever heard about it was on this thread, by @seawulf575 .
My observation, is what some have opined above. The right has a perception of mostly white Christian farmers just trying to make it. While seeing the brown/black skinned welfare recipients as not wanting to get a job.
The outrage I see from the right, about government aid to minorities, is not talked about in regards to farmers. Recently, farmers got over $12 billion, and according to many farmers, they will need more in the future. Yet, I haven’t heard any mention, by the right, about this being an issue.
I was trying to explore the REAL reason, that the right doesn’t seem to care about the billions flowing to the farmers. But things like welfare really get them mad. I see the two as the same thing. The only difference I can discern is skin color.
Much like the right crying for a southern boarder wall, whilst ignoring the northern boarder… Again, the only difference I can see is race…
That is on you.
There are a great many differences, and color is not a motivator nearly as much as you imagine.
I suppose you think republicans made the requirement that all welfare forms ask race so all the ones checked Hispanic can be automatically tossed out.
It seems to me that dems see color issues in everything. I swear, I would not comment on the colorful sunset around you guys. It would become an hour of rant.
^But where is the “risk,” if the government hands them billions regardless of what happens?
^^To make sure trump doesn’t lose their votes, hence the bribe.
It seems farmers may not enjoy the profits that they could potentially get, but most will never have to worry about losing it all.
Plus the land they hold should skyrocket in value, when the sea level rises a couple feet in the next century.
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But what would be the ideal solution for the plight of the farmer? Clearly efficiencies have risen to the point that THIS country has too many of them. To an extent, the government acquires a substantial percentage of the surplus food generated to distribute to the world’s poor as well as our own. But the situation is another stark lesson on how ours is only in theory a market economy.
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