2/09/2005 06:10:21 PM|||Toni|||John Stossel

Hah - John Stossel pulls out a great story on Farm Subsidies.
Excerpt:
Farm country? When politicians start handing out subsidies, you never can tell. Hundreds of federally subsidized farmers live in New York City. Among them is Mike Sonnenfeldt. He lives in the same building as Steven Spielberg and Steve Martin, and he gets cotton subsidies. I asked him whether he grows any cotton.
"I have no idea," he said.

And:
The politicians don't talk much about people like Mike Sonnenfeldt. They talk about protecting "family farms." Democratic vice-presidential candidate John Edwards spoke of "fighting for family farmers." Actually, big agribusinesses receive most federal farm subsidies, but some of the money does reach real, live family farmers, such as Fred and Larry Starrh.
The Starrhs grow mostly cotton on their 12,000-acre spread in California. It's hard to think of them as needy with all that land, but without subsidies, they say, they couldn't make a profit.
Most businesses that can't make a profit go out of business. Woolworth closed. So did TWA. So do 20,000 restaurants every year. It's that freedom to fail that has helped make America as prosperous as it is, because it frees people to do more productive things.
But not on subsidized farms. When the Starrhs can't make a profit, you give them a handout, although Fred Starrh refuses to call it a handout. "I look at it," he says, "as a way to maintain a viable agriculture in this country."
These "farmers" have 12,000 acres and they can't be profitable????? Well, smack me down. Or rather I should say "Smack them down" they don't deserve to stay in business.
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