Best farm subsidy idea I've ever heard

[Recursion]

A friend of mine who's a pastor in Texas just mentioned this. Replace (some) farm subsidies with direct payments to farm workers.

Farm workers in general do not receive the minimum wage, let alone a living wage. Let's change that. The USDA will pay your workers for you, $15 / hour.

[liberal N proud]

1. The farmers in Iowa will not like that

They get subsidies and don't have farm workers.

[orwell]

2. I wonder how many farm susidy recipients...

...hate the "Welfare" state.

Michelle Bachmann comes to mind...

[liberal N proud]

11. All of them

One time I was driving through Iowa and there was a big sign along the road hating on welfare moms. It really set me off, so I found a database of Government Farm subsidies by address or names (can't recall). Turned out the farmer that owned the land where the sign was making 100,000/year on subsidies.

That was also where I learned that my poor cousin and dead uncle were make more than that each.

[hunter]

3. Very interesting... thanks.

Downside is that it might discourage automation.

I think all dangerous, dirty, body-damaging, mind-numbing jobs ought to be automated.

If this automation puts people ought of work, then subsidize work that is not dangerous, dirty, body-damaging, and mind numbing.

In any case, people who happen to be unemployable for any reason ought to receive a basic livable income.

[Brickbat]

4. "I think all dangerous, dirty, body-damaging, mind-numbing jobs ought to be automated."

Which ones are left, then?

[hunter]

5. You've never had a good job?

Economic "productivity" as it is now defined is a direct measure of the damage we are doing to earth's natural environment and our own human spirit.

Most of us suffer jobs that do not make the world a better place.

We ought to change that, right?

[Brickbat]

6. What would those jobs look like?

[hunter]

7. That's not a question I can answer for anyone else.

If you could be paid to make the world a better place, what would you do?

Your answer doesn't need to be the same as mine. We might disagree about what makes the world a better place.

[Brickbat]

10. Many people find fulfillment in work that others consider dangersous, damaging to the

body, and/or mind-numbing, though. And people certainly differ widely on what makes the world a better place.

[PatSeg]

8. Subsidizing healthy food

would also be a great idea, so fruits and vegetables weren't a luxury for low income people.

[csziggy]

9. USDA used to pay some "farmers" to NOT grow crops

Back when I first got my farm there were some subsidies devoted to paying land owners to not grow a crop. I believe it was for some things that were in too abundant a supply so rather than buying up surpluses, the government would simply pay the land owners to leave their land fallow. Some pieces of land had not grown any crops for years, but the subsidies kept coming.

Of course, that meant the money didn't circulate the way it would have if something was actually being grown - money for seed, fertilizer, fuel, labor, etc. just wasn't spent they way it would have if a crop were grown, harvested and marketed. Instead money went straight into land owners' pockets and didn't get spread around the community.

I'm not sure if that kind of subsidy is still done. I've never taken a subsidy like that. The only government assistance I accepted on my farm was help building a wildlife pond down in our woods and advice on managing our trees - which was to just let them grow.

[Dash Riprock]

12. Yes, they still do.

I looked into this last year for our farm, but since it hadn't grew any crops for over 50 years it didn't qualify.