I am still disgusted.

With gas about $4.00 per gallon, the oil company execs want their subsidiies. I say, "tax them."
The US govt should cease subsidizing anything and everything.
What do you think?

I am boycotting oil products. We are having granite instead of
corian.
We use paper bags as opposed to plastic. We are tired of the oil barons.
I think they should subsidize us,

The oil companies among many other industries should not be receiving subsidies. Once a subsidy starts, it perpetuates forever with new "reasons" to justify when the old reasons are no longer relevant.

5/12/2011

How's about farmers being paid not to produce food !
I feel this is an illegal act by the govt., it's to keep
prices high, I say take it away and have all these farmers
grow food, our food supply is going to go even higher now
because of the floods, I say picket the govt. for their
stupidities .............


Cheers..Joe

I watched a documentary about corn that was so complicated in terms of the funding streams, the super industrial complex and the piles uneaten, I was boggled.

Maybe writers shoudl demand subsidies not to write.
That would drive the price of books up as there would be fewer of them.

Alice, you have an idea whose time has come!!!! Creativity at its zenith.

As best I could figure out from the corn documentary, farm subsidies originally helped small farmers stay afloat. However, the big companies saw a gold mine and started buying up the small farms so that the subsidy itself became big business. The small farmers could no longer compete because they couldn't afford the equipment, didn't have the backup for the big loans they needed; and when the government encouraged them by providing loans, they could not remain competitive enough to pay them off and lost everything. Instead, those who once owned farmland are now "managers" instead of owners if they are still in farmwork at all. Agriculture is a huge industrial complex with high paid lobbyists in Washington, D. C. that wield a lot of power. Part of their "cover" is the American belief in the family farm that is now a myth except in rare cases.

That documentary was long and detailed; so, it's possible to get a detail or two out of sync. Subsidies have become very complicated; again, what began as a temporary measure in all cases has become an entrenched "right" that benefits the few at the expense of the many - and for the most part, the "few" are the wealthiest.

When I bought my farm in Pennsylvania in 1970, I was encouraged not to grow any grain and could get a subsidity. I had not planned to grow grain for resale and never applied for it. What I grew I took to the feed mill and it was ground into feed for my animals. I never made a dime off the farm from crops. I enjoyed being a gentleman farmer. The money I made was on the sale of the farm. Wish I still had it. The small farmers makes very little money and it is hard work. The greatest benefit is security in bad times. Having a source of food is worth more than money in the bank. They benefit in bad economic times with a source of food.

Note: It is predicted that there will be a shortage of grain products since many farmers (large ones) have contracted their entire harvests to the oil companies for bio fuels. It wouldn't hurt to stock up on some food products, i.e., flour, cereals, etc., before the shortages hit. Price increase will be the first indication. Your money can't buy something that is no longer available.

DK, you are so right. The govt no longer has money to pay for nothing.

Good idea, Abe. We do not stock up on food--probably should now.

5/13/2011

Alice..

Buy a bread machine....Then I have a recipe for
you it's called Sally Lunn Bread, English bread recipe,
delicious ......!


Cheers..Joe....

Joe,

I can make bread without a bread machine!