by Mark Luedtke

Created on: June 20, 2008

The argument for farm subsidies is they help small, family farmers stay in business. That's a silly argument taxpayers should not subsidize businesses. If a small, family farm can't profit in a free market, the family is better served by the breadwinner entering a business which produces a profit. When that happens, both the family and society benefit. But even if you accept the argument that taxpayers should help out small, family farmers, farm subsidies do just the opposite.

During the 70 year history of farm subsidies, the percentage of America's population on farms has dropped from 25% to 2%. Contrary to what politicians tell us, farm subsidies are designed to benefit rich farmers and drive off small farmers because the more crops a farmer plants, the bigger the check government sends him. That's because farm subsidies are rooted in socialism.

Woodrow Wilson took the first bite of the apple by guaranteeing prices of certain crops after WWI. The result was that farmers switched to planting those crops with a government guaranteed price, created a glut, and the Federal government was stuck with a bunch of worthless crops it had to dump at significantly lower prices. Taxpayers footed the bill for the difference.

Roosevelt's New Deal agricultural interventionism cost more in dollars and human lives. While Americans starved and struggled to import expensive food, FDR's government burned crops, slaughtered livestock, and paid farmers not to grow food. All the while, FDR lied to Americans, telling them that American farmers couldn't produce enough food to feed the people. That's the socialism at the root of farm subsidies.

Today, family farms netting up to $2.5 million after expenses receive fat, government checks. That's Congress' definition of a struggling family farm. The top 5% of subsidy recipients collect over 50% of the subsidies. The top 10% collect 73%. Small farms get next to nothing. Economies of scale give the corporate farmers a big advantage over small farmers, but the subsidies magnify the advantage and drive up the price of farmland by up to 30%. Small farmers can't afford to buy more land to grow more crops to make more money. Instead, corporate farmers often buy up struggling, small farms, turning the owners into tenant farmers or sending them packing.

Socialism, not free markets, make the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. According to the Topeka Capital-Journal, 56 of America's richest citizens receive farm subsidies. Billionaires David Rockefeller

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