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The Democracy of the founding fathers was Greek Democracy, predicated upon a slave society, and restricted to only the elite. This is the society we live in today, even with our reforms towards direct representation. The system is inherently biased towards the election of elites and against the representation of the masses. Hamilton called it “faction” when the working class got together and demanded better conditions, and mechanisms were built in (which still exist to this day) that serve to ensure the continued dominance of the elite over the masses. The suffering of the many is intentional. The opulence of the wealthy is also. This is the intended outcome.
I understand. What's wrong with farmers making a profit?
That they engage in tactics such as mass slaughter and burial of pigs and destruction of food in order to ensure prices maintain a level that is profitable for them.
That they prioritize crops that ensure good returns rather than prioritizing crops to ensure healthy diets.
That profit driven agriculture is the primary reason for mass industrial monocultures, which are inherently destructive to the environment.
And that profit driven agriculture relies on massive infusions of petroleum products in order to maintain production levels and prevent crop failures due to depleted soil. Issues which regenerative and sustainable permaculture do not have.
Small farmers typically don’t really profit per se. They make enough to maintain their farms through federal subsidies because the federal government at least recognizes the importance of having a steady food supply, regardless of market prices. It just doesn’t take the logical next step and recognize the importance of everyone having adequate nutrition, and so we’re in the situation we are now, where 25% of US children don’t have access to adequate nutrition.
So you're telling me work as hard as a farmer my whole life and I don't get to retire with millions in the bank account?
Pass
That’s already how it happens, unless the farmer sells the land, which usually actually happens when he dies, because their kids don’t want to be farmers. Most farmers aren’t rich Lmao, corporate industrial farms make big bucks, but Billy’s Lima Bean Farm isn’t raking in millions in profit. Millions in revenue, maybe, but margins for individual food producers are pretty damn low already.
Even those who retire and have savings to live off aren’t necessarily profiting. Ensuring the ability to retire is part of a living wage.
I don’t give a damn if you become a farmer or not. It’s not like we have a shortage of people already working on these farms for exploitative and sometimes even slave wages and living in plantation style housing on the farm. Those people wouldn’t say no to a living wage, they’re already doing all the actual hard work on the farm, they might as well be entitled to the full value of the products. Cutting out the billionaires and rent seekers in the middle, they’d be able to raise their wages to sustainable levels.