Tiktok video: https://www.tiktok.com/@cattlemenfamilyfarms/video/7467698017559170350
Bsky post: https://bsky.app/profile/thetnholler.bsky.social/post/3lhrdl5nt222s
Articles:
Tiktok video: https://www.tiktok.com/@cattlemenfamilyfarms/video/7467698017559170350
Bsky post: https://bsky.app/profile/thetnholler.bsky.social/post/3lhrdl5nt222s
Articles:
Dude doesn’t quite connect the dots. The government — under Biden — had a deal to save his farm. The government — under Trump — is changing all the rules, reneging on the contract. If all he groks from this is “government bad,” then game over. Except it’s not a game.
My impression from the video is that all he is taking from this situation is “government bad.”
I mean, it is sort of the lesson. The government sort of exists to be stable and a stabilizing force.
We’ve concentrated power in the executive branch for years, throughout several administrations. If one election can cause this much chaos in a month (really a few weeks). Than the government isn’t performing it’s primary function.
At this point I’m not sure how much it matters that one party is mostly responsible. The state is looming on failure. These radical position shifts every few years are a bad thing.
Most (none of them, probably) governments aren’t designed to deal with this level of intentional destruction of infrastructure. They expect officials to govern the country, not set it on fire.
Yes, there is literally no governmental system that can function while operated by bad faith actors (outside of sci-fi).
The strength of a system over time is ultimately based on how well it encourages the participants to act honestly and humanely.
Commodity crops prices often trend the inverse of the economy. The reason is simple; It is highly dependent on the export market.
When overall economy is strong, the dollar is strong versus other currencies. This makes importing easier and exporting harder. So prices for commodities in the U.S. fall.
When the overall economy is weak the dollar falls in value. This makes importing harder but exporting much easier. Prices for commodities rise rapidly and farmers make more gross money.
Even through they are making more gross income their cost skyrocket so their net returns are in general pretty average.
Farmers tend to make the most money when the economy is in recovery mode and commodity prices are still higher but input costs fall.
So here is the vicious cycle we have fallen into. Republicans get into power and crash the economy. When it crashes, farmers get high prices but low returns. Democrats come in, repair the economy but by the time elections come around, farmers have not made any money for a year or two. Rinse and repeat.
Now the orange moron adds a bit of a twist to it. Trade war: This can fuck the farmer up really bad as buyers are willing to pay a modest premium to minimize the impact of an unreliable trading partner. It reduces both the volume moved and prices offered from other countries for years.