Subsidies and Tarrifs are Destroying Everything, and Farmers are to blame
Yup, the farmers lobby congress for subsidies, which they get. There are 5 agricultural products that receive 80% of US farm subsidies. Brazilian ethanol makes 8.3 times the energy it takes to produce, US ethanol only makes back 1.3 times the energy it takes to produce. But since corn is one of those subsidized products, Brazilian ethanol faces a huge tarriff coming into the US. Why? Corn farmers, the purveyors of famine and pollution in our world. Out of the 18,000 gas stations in the US, only 750 have ethanol because of this nonsense. Farmers are guilty of this in Europe also, they’re the reason African produce can’t come into Europe and compete, always begging for massive handouts from the government and protective tarrifs. Meanwhile Africa’s farmers go bankrupt and are forced to watch their crops go to rot. Why are there even farmers in the first world? Why are their businesess not allowed to fail like other businneses? They are incompetent, they can’t compete without sucking tax-payer money away, and they make it impossible for the developing world to develop. Agribusinnes, family farmers, local farmers, whatever, they are a stumbling block to free trade and are succesfully destroying the lower half of this planet. If I make 1000 q-tips and only sell 9, the government doesn’t pay me for the other 991, how can we have this double standard with farmers? I shouldn’t even have to pay for produce considering how much my taxes go to pay for it already!
