How Should Government Treat Energy Producers?
Of course, the government should neither inhibit nor subsidize any particular type of energy.
-Ron Paul
http://lewrockwell.com/paul/paul749.html
It amazes me that energy would have to be a welfare situation...Although, there are many forms of subsidies that amount to nothing more than a welfare handout to the recipients. My cousins are wheat farmers who openly admit that there's no way to not make money off of wheat...You are paid for planting it, you are paid when you harvest it, you get paid even if the crop gets ruined (crop insurance). In their opinion, if you fail financially at it, it's because you've really mismanaged your money. I wouldn't know...I have never been a crop farmer...But according to them, the handouts are great, especially if you do something like sheep. I wonder how many subsidies there are, in addition to energy, wheat and sheep?
Quote from: Catwoman on June 29, 2011, 05:58:03 AM
It amazes me that energy would have to be a welfare situation...Although, there are many forms of subsidies that amount to nothing more than a welfare handout to the recipients. My cousins are wheat farmers who openly admit that there's no way to not make money off of wheat...You are paid for planting it, you are paid when you harvest it, you get paid even if the crop gets ruined (crop insurance). In their opinion, if you fail financially at it, it's because you've really mismanaged your money. I wouldn't know...I have never been a crop farmer...But according to them, the handouts are great, especially if you do something like sheep. I wonder how many subsidies there are, in addition to energy, wheat and sheep?
THey've cut the subsidies drastically on sheep. They eliminated it on mohair producers years ago and guess what, they still make money.
I wonder if there are subsidies on alpacas.
I would think everything one wanted to know about available farm commodity subsidies could be found at the local FSA office. Here's some contact info:
FSA SERVICE CENTER OFFICE
GREENWOOD-ELK COUNTY FARM SERVICE AGENCY
1819 E RIVER ST
EUREKA, KS 67045-2157
(620) 583-5544
(620) 583-6236 Fax
Ernest Reusser
County Executive Director
(620) 583-5544
(620) 583-6236 fax
ernest.reusser@ks.usda.gov
More good, and locally relevant, information is available from the Environmental Working Group. These folks report the actual recipients of subsidies and the amounts received, by year, up through 2010.
http://farm.ewg.org/addrsearch.php?s=yup&stab=KS&city=&zip=67349&z=See+Recipients&last=&first=&stab=AL&fullname=&stab2=AL
(http://farm.ewg.org/addrsearch.php?s=yup&stab=KS&city=&zip=67349&z=See+Recipients&last=&first=&stab=AL&fullname=&stab2=AL)
Interesting link...!