Farm Out! (was Re: Retribution not enough)

[Karsten M. Self]

on Mon, Oct 22, 2001 at 05:39:08PM -0400, Declan McCullagh (declan at well.com) wrote:
> Now if only some handy, self-effacing volunteer would come along and
> repost your ill-formatted message wrapped at 72 columns, perhaps with
> a severe admonition about the proper forms of netiquette, my day
> would be complete.

That's wishful thinking, Declan.  After, all, this is a capatilist
society.  What's in it for me? [1]

| Steve Furlong wrote:
| 
| > Then let them. A self-sufficient subsistence farmer won't be bothered by
| > the trade his neighbors are carrying out. [1] His farm can be a
| > neolithic bubble as the world progresses.
| 
| What? You're talking nonsense here. Of course they make part of their
| living selling crops --- what's all the bs about "forging his own
| metals" etc. Total straw man arguement. The point was that they aren't
| "starving" for one thing, and, if it were up to them, they'd stay put.
| 
| Look, I'll try to explain it in terms that perhaps even a city boy like
| you can understand. You don't have to go to the 3rd world, just go talk
| to small american family farmers. There are thousands of them out there
| who simply don't care that they aren't making lots of money -- the
| important thing is that they can keep their farms and do their own
| thing. What's wrong with that?
| 
| You know what destroyed the small family farm in this country? Education
| -- ag schools and the county extension agent. Funded, for the most part,
| by large chemical companies. The old story of the country bumpkin
| getting conned by the city-slicker salesman. Kids went off to ag school,
| came home and told Dad to do things the "modern" way, factory farming
| with modern chemicals -- sure, go into debt, buy all those new tractors
| and fancy equipment and we'll be rich.
| 
| And then, of course, that little trick the Fed Reserve and the banks
| pulled back in the 70's with manipulating the economy so that rural land
| prices went thru the roof, farmers who had been mortgage free for
| generations got duped into borrowing money on their land to buy that
| fancy new equipment that the ag schools and extension agents told them
| they needed, then bingo -- the Fed played some more tricks, land values
| dropped back down, and a whole lot of farmers lost their land.
| 
| Is that what you call free-market economics? I call it fascism -- state
| and industry working in concert to whipsaw the masses and get more
| control over peoples lives. People who were very free and independant
| are suddenly wage slaves in the city because they listened to the
| "experts" from industry and government. And got duped.
| 
| I know one heck of a lot of people who much prefer living in rural
| "poverty" to living in a city making big bucks. Although my wife and I
| have been making a whole lot more money in recent years than we ever
| thought we would, and live in a big fancy house in the city, we consider
| it a serious mistake. Money isn't everything. We were one heck of a lot
| happier when we earned about $4000.00 a year.  We will soon rectify
| that. Why make a bunch money and feed the fascist machine?
| 
| One of my favorite cartoons was one of Snuffy Smith and his wife --- she
| says "Pa, the world is passing us by." Snuffy replies, "It sure better!"
| Damn straight!
| 
| "Tune in, turn on, and drop out."  Now that's real free market economics.
| 
| >
| >
| > If he _isn't_ self-sufficient, then he does care about the trade going
| > on around him. That's been the case forever, and new trade always
| > disrupts someone who was making his living with the way things were.
| >
| > And if he wants to make use of metal tools, then he'll have to exchange
| > as best he can for them. But, again, he's not self-sufficient, unless he
| > can dig and forge his own metals. Complaining that the world isn't the
| > way it was for Grandpa shouldn't get a sympathetic ear from anyone who
| > uses metals, plastics, or medicine, or who eats fresh produce out of
| > season.
| >
| > [1] Assuming they don't pollute him out of raising his crops or
| > livestock, tax or regulate his farm out of existence.
| >
| > --
| > Steve Furlong    Computer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel
| >   617-670-3793
| >
| > "Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly
| > while bad people will find a way around the laws." -- Plato
| 
| --
| Harmon Seaver, MLIS
| CyberShamanix
| Work 920-203-9633
| Home 920-233-5820
| hseaver at cybershamanix.com
| http://www.cybershamanix.com/resume.html

----------------------------------------
Notes:

1.  Gratuitous abuse from Tim May, of course.  Back to the cornfield.

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