>>512290406
farm subsidies are nasty business. its about as easy to figure out how it works as tax law is but I dumped some autism into it so heres what I figured out: farm subsidies are supposedly there to bridge the gap between farming costs and razor thin margins. In actuality they have price controls attached to them, in order to qualify for those subsidies you have to agree to sell at (((market value))).
Automation/mechanization has made it easier to output product at larger volumes (in all industries). yet no industries have seen the inflation adjusted consumer price of their products drop. except farming. some moderate grade autism into historical pricing shows that a bushell of [insert crop] is with 30% of what it was in the 70s. further autism shows that farming equipment, tractors/combines/etc, cost 10% or less than the current price.
it was more profitable to be a farmer by orders of magnitude 50 years ago. the razor thin profit margin gap is arbitrarily created and then maintained by subsidies. and since the prices are (((market controlled))) theres no wiggle room for being able to pay workers a decent rate. The only area where ive seen that not be the case is ranch hand work, but even that only pays decent but crap considering the job usually has such hours and such a location that a married man isnt about to do it (last time I looked $25 was the going rate) I wouldnt voluntarily work a job that required me to live on site for a penny less than 40.
either way, working a field is brutal. the moment you get onto the field the sun just hits different and you wouldnt think it but by the time you got 100 feet into the first row of crops you are beat the fuck up. as far as manual labor goes crop work isnt strenuous but is pretty awful work. Ive done it for $15 but that job wasnt about the money it was about helping an older homesteader, it absolutely wasnt worth $15.
