Keep fighting Communism. FSA will direct deposit your check.

2/ To put a finer point on this, whenever farm subsidies are brought up, farmers invariably say,"the government wants to keep food prices low," which is true. Guess what, that is also why many grocery and restaurant workers qualify for Medicaid, SNAP and EITC.

3/ Farmers also say, "all of that money gets passed to the input companies and landlords." Guess what, so do the benefits all those "people on welfare" get.

4/ As far as I can tell, all of these programs are set up to attenuate problems that crop up because of the way our "capitalist" system operates. Farm subsidies are part of this, both as a way to keep food cheap and as a way to prop up struggling rural economies.

5/ Let's face it, there are some ways in which rural areas and inner city neighborhoods are very similar. A lack of good-paying jobs. Few local businesses like groceries and hardware stores providing the necessities of life at reasonable prices. Schools struggling for funds.

6/ As @anthony_schutz points out, farm subsidies (and SNAP/Medicaid/EITC) really don't address these needs. As I see it, they are more of a distraction to keep us from noticing the rot is in the system we have.

7/ If we really want to convince the kids that capitalism is a better system than communism, we have to find ways to make capitalism better serve everyone in it. Yelling at people to go get a better job DOESN'T WORK WHEN THERE AREN'T MANY BETTER JOBS OUT THERE.

8/ I don't have any silver bullet solutions to these problems, but I would suggest people look at how our tax code works and at your tax forms. Every year I am amazed that dividend income is taxed at 15% or lower rates while most peoples' earned income is taxed at higher rates.

9/ Please pay attention to how the Republican party promises regular folks tax cuts while the ultra-wealthy get most of the breaks. Those same Republicans are more than happy to increase sales taxes, license fees and other use taxes. Guess who pays that.

10/ Farmers love to bitch about their taxes, but much of the tax I pay on my farm income goes to self-employment tax. That in theory will come back to me in Social Security and Medicare, and in reality pays my grandpa and parents' Social Security and Medicare.

11/ Or let's take a REAL look at estate taxes. A $550,000 exemption hit most family farms. But that was prior to 2003. How many farms are hit when there is an $11,000,000 exemption?

12/ We can see retired farmers who are currently landlords who are using the farms they own for retirement income. If their kids have moved away, there are probably two likely outcomes when they die: the farm sells or has absentee landlords.

13/ Which outcome is more likely to benefit the greater community? Which outcome is less likely with an estate tax that would take into account that absentee landlords might be a net negative for the community?

14/ And I still don't understand the stepped-up basis. If you didn't pay estate tax you shouldn't get stepped up basis.

15/ Stepped-up basis may encourage the sale of farms by non-farming heirs, but it is a giant tax giveaway to people who inherited $10,000,000 in long held corporate stock.

16/ My point is that our system is awash in regulations because a large percentage of our talent and intellect is dedicated to finding ways for extreme wealth to avoid taxation and restrictions on the operations of their business.

17/ Instead of being the poster boys for wealthy folks' tax avoidance, we should be using our lobbying strengths to help benefit our communities, and with us, struggling people in other communities.

18/ It is really easy to say, "I'm fighting communism," but if you are mainly getting the crumbs for helping the rich get richer, are you really?

19/ I apologize for the disjointness of the thread. It was kind of a stream-of-consciousness deal for a rainy Sunday morning.

Enjoy your Sunday, with family or loved ones if you have the opportunity. /Fin