Farm Welfare
Farms have been receiving Federal subsidies since the Depression and dust-bowl years. Like everyone else in the world, farmers tend to be economically rational and to follow incentives. If someone paid me not to work one day a week, I'd take the money and use the time to blog or to do yard work.
There are many compelling arguments against farm subsidies, including conservation arguments, and the sole compelling argument that I've heard in their favor is called politics. (The LYF, like most small farmers, doesn't get any government money, but is a beneficiary of milk price supports.)
Conservation funds for farmers is another matter, but even there, I'd rather see the Feds simply buy the "spare" and marginal land, or buy the development rights to it, and transfer it to conservation organizations, than for it to be one more government hand-out.
From a piece by Mark Radulich:
"The Heritage Foundation also reports that, “Farming may be the most federally subsidized profession in America. The persistence of farm subsidy programs results from the popular misconception that they stabilize the incomes of poor family farmers who are at the mercy of unpredictable weather and crop prices. Yet a recent U.S. Department of Agriculture report concluded that, "On average, farm households have higher incomes, greater wealth, and lower consumption expenditures than all U.S. households." " Read entire: Click here: Blogger News Network
