The subsidy train is derailing
Written for the High Plains Journal
Last week I had one of those moments that will be shaping my message for quite some time. I was honored to be asked to speak in the York, NE High School on March 18, 2024 to kick off National Ag week. I spoke to about 100 kids over two class periods, mostly freshmen in introductory ag classes. I asked each class how many lived on a farm and roughly 10 kids raised their hands.
First off, kudos to the ag teachers in the York school system because they have built this program to be the class to take by not only farm kids. Mostly this is driven by the shop full of animals and each student has one animal that they are required to take care of each day of school. Over the past few years, I have watched that program grow into something that is nothing short of amazing.
When I speak at schools, I do not lecture but I work at getting the students engaged and then allow the conversation to be driven by what is top of their mind. With that said, I’m not exactly sure how our second hour group got onto the topic of subsidies. While the subject is often top of mind for me, I am sure something was said that allowed me to go down the path with them.
I asked the group how many of them were in favor of subsidies. Most of the students raised their hands in support of the government handouts. I worked my way around the group asking them why they think subsidies were good. Most of them said something close to “it helps people.”
Fortunately, one young lady was brave enough to ask the question “What is a subsidy?” If she had not done that, the conversation would have been totally different but that allowed me to walk through what a subsidy is and how much each student currently owes toward the national debt. Not only in agriculture but in every walk of life from airlines and energy to health care and crop insurance, I tried to explain the general concept of a subsidy.
I told them the current United States debt load is $34.5 trillion and we have a population of 330 million legal citizens. That means each person in the room, including every baby that was just born yesterday, owes the federal government $102,776. I asked the class members how they were going to pay for that. I recognize that we are not going to do it in one generation and quite frankly we continue to grow it because we are too committed to “helping” people instead of following through on the FFA Creed itself where it says:
I believe in less dependence on begging and more power in bargaining; in the life abundant and enough honest wealth to help make it so — for others as well as myself.
I am not sure how many folks caught the recent response to the State of the Union Address by Retired Colonel Douglas Macgregor of the U.S. Army. In less than 11 minutes, he walked through the dangers of government debt and spending. He said currently 42% of our GDP is government spending. With the number of employees and contractors currently working for the feds, we have somewhere close to 20 million Americans depending on the federal government for a paycheck.
He also said this is dangerously close to what was happening in the former Soviet Union just prior to its collapse. I believe that right now we are at a crossroads, and we really must get a handle on this spending problem.
I have conversations with dirt farmers every single day and they try to convince me that they must take the subsidy (including wind, solar, CRP and all government programs) because if they don’t, they will be at a disadvantage to every other farmer in their county. The collapse of all individual liberty around the world came because governing bodies convinced the farming population that they needed to “work for the common good” instead of working for themselves.
The danger of a subsidy in farming is basic economics; the production of any product needs to be tied to demand or there is a huge crash on the horizon.
On a final note, after I explained the subsidy situation to this group of smart kids at York High School, I asked the subsidy question again. Only 4 kids raised their hands now that they understood exactly what a subsidy was and what it was going to cost them.
So let me ask you: Now that you understand the dangers of taking payments for producing nothing, do you still think it’s a good idea?