Replying to a message of Ross Sauer to Bob Ackley:

 RS> "Bob Ackley -> Ross Cassell"  wrote in
 RS> news:20276$MATZDOBRE{at}JamNNTPd:

 RS>>>> I've already shown how corn farmers get thiese direct
 RS>>>> subsidies, they get in a month more than I would get in
 RS>>>> 25
 RS>>>> years.

 RS>>>> Oh that's different!

 RC>>> Yes it is.

 BA>> I know a lot of farmers.  Most grow either corn or soybeans
 BA>> (and most switch crops every couple of years - the field
 BA>> surrounding my house is usually corn but in 2009 it was
 BA>> soybeans).  AFAIK none of them are getting much if
 BA>> anything from the Crop Reserve Program (which is the
 BA>> outfit that pays farmers not to grow crops). There isn't
 BA>> much land around here that is in that program.

 RS> So who does get those billions of $$$ not to grow anything?
 RS> The answer is, wealthy corporate farmers.

Wealthy corporations, perhaps.  I don't know of any wealthy farmers -
most around here are asset rich and cash poor.  Land their parents or
grandparents bought for $1/acre is assessed at around $5,000/acre
today - that's one h*ll of a capital gain (most of which is the result
of inflation); plus they now pay more in annual property taxes on the 
land than they paid for the land in the first place.

IMO those reserve subsidies are going to go away, mainly because the
country is going to have to grow more food and won't have a problem 
disposing of any surpluses.

WRT inflation:  I sold my house in Plattsmouth, NE, in 2005 for $36,000.
In 1976 I paid $17,000 for the place.  That's a paper gain of $19,000
(less documented improvements like the new roof, $15,000).  But those
2005 dollars were worth less than half the value of those 1976 dollars I
used to buy the property.  So I had a paper gain and an *actual* loss.

Also note that in 1976 the annual property tax on the place was $86.00,
yes, *eighty-six* dollars (on an assessed value of $11,000); in 2004 the
assessed value was $32,000 and the property tax bill was $980 - the
assessed value approximately tripled (300%) and the tax bill went up more
than ten times (1,000%) - with absolutely no increase in either the
quantity or quality of government services (including schools) provided.
For comparison the assessed value of my place here is $78,000 and the
property tax bite just went up to $850 - and the county takes MUCH better
care of the rural roads than the Plattsmouth street department ever did in that
town (and if you want to see streets that are REALLY a disaster go to Omaha).

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