trc@houti.UUCP (06/11/83)
Did you all catch the "cheese scandal" on the news? It seems that someone has been stealing cheese intended to be given to the poor, and selling it to restaurants. I couldnt help but laugh. My taxes and yours were already gone, so far as any benefit I might get from it. And yet the commentator decried the theft of taxpayers money. I do not condone the actions of the thieves, but at the same time, it seems like a small bit of poetic justice - there would not be any wasteful cheese surplus if it were not for government subsidies, nor would there have been the opportunity for the thieves if there hadnt been a giveaway program. While I doubt that the thieves had the same motives, I was reminded of Ragnar Danneskjold, the pirate of "Atlas Shrugged", who took only relief shipments bound for "People's States", which he counted as having been stolen from the productive to support the unproductive. Tom Craver houti!trc
myers@uwvax.UUCP (06/12/83)
Speaking of govt subsidies, there would be a hell of a lot more food for the rest of the world if farmers were'nt paid to let their fields lie fallow (to keep the price of corn, soy beans, etc. at an acceptable level for the other farmers). Of course, it would be bad business to just grow something in those fields and have the govt buy it and ship it somewhere... Can't be having the productive give any sustenance to those less fortunate, now can we??? Pardon my cynical state of mind, but if the CMP (capitalist mode of production) is so da*n efficient, why does this kind of under-production occur? JDM
ddw@cornell.UUCP (06/12/83)
Well, here we go again, hot on the heels of another non-issue. uwvax!myers
makes the claim:
Speaking of govt subsidies, there would be a hell of a lot more food for the
rest of the world if farmers weren't paid to let their fields lie fallow
(to keep the price of corn, soy beans, etc. at an acceptable level for the
other farmers).
I admit that there is a lot of cropland out of production this year due to the
PIK (payment in kind) program. However, it is a myth that in recent years
vast amounts of US farmland have been lying fallow; in fact, US agriculture
has been running more or less at full steam (with the exception of some minor
crops). (My source for this statment is my father, who is a professor in the
Ag school here at Cornell.)
Of course, it would be bad business to just grow something in those fields
and have the govt buy it and ship it somewhere... Can't be having the
productive give any sustenance to those less fortunate, now can we???
Well, the government \has/ been buying vast amounts of commodities for years
now; remember the dairy products giveaways of recent months? The only way
the PIK program could even exist is that the government has vast amounts of
grain stored. The grain, of course, was bought under subsidy programs.
Now, I admit that there hasn't been an overwhelming amount of this stuff
shipped to other countries, but I am not at all convinced that even if it
were that it would make any real difference. With the Sahara Desert con-
tinuing to retreat south, terrible weather all over the world, etc., who
says it would do any good at all. Particularly since a lot of the countries
with the worst starvation problems have either no decent food distribution
systems or corrupt officials who grab the food and pump it into the local
black market.
And even if you could get the food to the people who need it, what if their
countries have nothing to buy it with and little prospect of ever having
anything? And if the population rises when the food supply goes up (which
it does), who takes care of the excess? In other words, where does it all
end? I don't like the idea of people starving, but I don't know how to
solve the problem, either.
Pardon my cynical state of mind, but if the CMP (capitalist mode of
production) is so da*n efficient, why does this kind of under-production
occur?
Pardon *my* cynical state of mind, but what do you suggest as an alternative?
I think I'll just point out that the USSR is hardly a shining example of
agricultural production and wait for the flames to arrive.
David Wright
{vax135|decvax|purdue}!cornell!ddw
ddw@cornell