Minimum Wage just went up to $11.50 in Washington State. The price of milk is $2.68 a Gallon.

[jediuser598]

I...really?

You find no moral resistance, no moral conflict, when you consider deporting millions of men women and children? none at all? Like, that's completely within your christian values? Are any of you catholic?

[Smitty-48]

Even now, and I'm not saying my wife is in anyway insecure, I'm a very lucky man and she is well aware of what a catch she is, none the less, I am flirty, and when chicks start to flirt with me, my wife comes over to assert her dominance, specially if she's got a couple drinks in her, just to let them know who is the top hen in the room.

[Okeefenokee]

I figure it's related to who's wearing the biggest rock on her finger.

I've never had a rock and Nerd knows better than to spend crazy money on an object for me. We use extra funds for experiences. I don't get the whole bling thing, at all.

I turned down a cupcake once from a girl who brought them in for her birthday. She pushed and I insisted that I wasn't eating one, but thanks anyway. There was another chick who rode a bike every day who everyone knew was very fit. She said, "90 percent of being in shape is making other people feel bad about it." I loved it.

Go with the princess cut. It makes the stone look bigger than it is. These are the things you learn once you become domesticated.

[DBTrek]

Farming is a mess.

We subsidize agriculture at set price points to garauntee that commodity X is never sold for less than $Y. Then, we BUY all of the excess commodity X (with taxpayer funds) and let it rot in silos to make sure our artificial price floor isn’t affected by supply.

Then ... we hire a bunch of non-citizens working here illegally because, as the oft repeated myth goes, “Americans won’t do those jobs”.

Also - while silos of food rot away to nothing, we issues food stamps to families (again with taxpayer funds) so they can afford food our government has kept at artificially high prices.

Can everyone see the simple solution to this?
It’s fairly obvious.

[Okeefenokee]

Bullshit.

Of the 2.1 million farms in the United States in 2012, 97 percent were family
owned operations. Eighty-eight percent of all farms were small family farms with
less than $350,000 in gross cash farm income. Mid-size and large family farms
accounted for 9 percent of farms. Only 3 percent of U.S. farms were not family
owned.

Small family farms together accounted for 58 percent of
direct-to-consumer sales, selling through farmers markets,
roadside farm stands, and community-supported agriculture
(CSA) arrangements. They accounted for 17 percent
of organic sales.

https://www.agcensus.usda.gov/Publicati ... yFarms.pdf

The 2007 Census of Agriculture shows an increase in the number of
small farms in the United States. The U.S. Department of Agriculture
defines small farms as farms with $250,000 or less in sales of agricultural
commodities. In 2007, there were 18,467 more small farms counted than
in 2002. It is important to understand the attributes and characteristics
of these farms and the role they play in the changing structure of U.S.
agriculture.

Nationally, 91 percent of all farms fall under the USDA small farm
definition, which are places that sell less than $250,000 in agricultural
products annually. The percentage of small farms is highest in the South
and New England.
There are 14 states where 95 percent or more of all farms are small.
West Virginia has the highest percentage of small farms. There are only
five states where less than 80 percent of all farms are small – Delaware,
Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa.

https://www.agcensus.usda.gov/Publicati ... l_farm.pdf

$250,000 in gross sales.

That's a very small farm indeed. Probably run by the kids on weekends.

^^^doesn't understand what gross means.

There's no chance you're talking out your ass again about some shit you saw in a liberal documentary on netflix. No chance at all.

[Smitty-48]

Farming is a mess.

We subsidize agriculture at set price points to garauntee that commodity X is never sold for less than $Y. Then, we BUY all of the excess commodity X (with taxpayer funds) and let it rot in silos to make sure our artificial price floor isn’t affected by supply.

Then ... we hire a bunch of non-citizens working here illegally because, as the oft repeated myth goes, “Americans won’t do those jobs”.

Also - while silos of food rot away to nothing, we issues food stamps to families (again with taxpayer funds) so they can afford food our government has kept at artificially high prices.

Can everyone see the simple solution to this?
It’s fairly obvious.

Frankly, I know a couple farming families round here, and they are multimillionares, supply managed government protected pricing for the win. They don't even farm their own farm, they bring in temporary foreign workers from the West Indies.

[DBTrek]

I wonder if I could buy a warehouse and lease it to the government to store their excess agricultural goods. I mean, damn, as long as the scam is operating in plain sight why not join the winners circle?

[Smitty-48]

I mean, damn, as long as the scam is operating in plain sight why not join the winners circle?

Exactly, mate, never complain, never explain, simply incorporate, and shift as much of your revenue stream to capital gains as you can.

[K@th]

Then ... we hire a bunch of non-citizens working here illegally because, as the oft repeated myth goes, “Americans won’t do those jobs”.

There's no shortage of stories in the past decade about farms putting out ads for Americans to do produce picking. The reports are grim.

http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-fi-f ... migration/

That has made California farms a proving ground for the Trump team’s theory that by cutting off the flow of immigrants they will free up more jobs for American-born workers and push up their wages.

So far, the results aren’t encouraging for farmers or domestic workers.

Farmers are being forced to make difficult choices about whether to abandon some of the state’s hallmark fruits and vegetables, move operations abroad, import workers under a special visa or replace them altogether with machines.

But the raises and new perks have not tempted native-born Americans to leave their day jobs for the fields. Nine in 10 agriculture workers in California are still foreign born, and more than half are undocumented, according to a federal survey.

[DBTrek]

So if the legitimate labor pool will not do job X for amount $Y, what should the solution be?

If your answer is “Exploit an illegitimate labor pool illegally” you’ve failed.

You see, when we do that from the demand side people go to jail. If I want product X but I’m unwilling to pay price $Y, there are severe consequences for me obtaining product X through illegal means.