r/LeopardsAteMyFarm • u/XennialPlotTwist • 2d ago

The oh-woe-is-me farmers are completely out of pocket

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The video attached, by #BlackbirdCoop aka FarmingWhileBiege breaks down the side of the farming industry that they don't want you to know. While there may be some mom and pop farmers, who are struggling, those farmers are few and far between.

Again, all credit to @BlackbirdCoop

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u/Proach89 2d ago

Farmers are the wealthiest poor people I know.

Nothing fake about them hoping to screw everyone else without screwing themselves though.

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u/inertiatic_espn 2d ago

When I was growing up, the farm kids had the nicest clothes, the nicest cars and trucks, and the opportunity to go to the best colleges. They worked on their family farms and got paid more than anyone else. If they decided not to go to college, they didn't even bother trying in school because they knew they'd never have to apply to a job.

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u/RippinFissure 2d ago

This is my experience growing up in central Illinois. They'll tell ya that they're leveraged up to their eyeballs, which I'm sure is true, but then they'll vote to fuck people with student loans while yelling "live within your means!"

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u/dissaprovalface 1d ago

Same with Eastern Texas. Where I'm from, the largest land/cattle ranch owner in the county is not only the richest family in the whole area, but the also disproportionately control the politics and law enforcement in the area to their own benefit.

The owner in question was also the County Judge. And his best friend was and still is the Sheriff. I went to school with the asshole's grandson. Biggest most entitled piece of shit in the whole county. Constantly did shit to other kids and got away with it, because the cops were in his granddaddie's pocket. Wound up getting caught with an eight-ball of coke in a county where that kind of thing gets the book thrown at you. You know what happened to him?

Literally fucking nothing. In fact, they are still there. Lording over my former home like it's their own personal fucking fife. (Ironic when our county holds the largest Ren Faire in Texas. From which that family directly receives kickbacks. So a "fife" really isn't far off base.)

Rich land owners that like to shrowd themselves in a veil of "we are just poor ranchers" are some of the most disingenuous people in this country. You dont get to own thousands of acres in a state where that acreage is going to cost you an arm and a leg in taxes without being rich assholes. And it's exceedingly ironic and hilarious that these people do it while directly fucking over their neighbors if a buck can be made from it.

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u/PitifulJellyfish6700 22h ago

Yep, same as in Oklahoma. Rich assholes who tell everybody else to live within their means. They are special that way.

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u/ImRestarted1 1d ago

Isnt there like a cheaper option than student loans?

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u/RippinFissure 1d ago

Its gonna depend person to person. I'm going back to college at 41 and have roughly 60% of an Associates degree covered between tuition reimbursement at my work and what I can pay out of pocket. 

Looking at quick stats, about 55% of people who graduate with a Bachelor's have student loans. 

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u/ImRestarted1 1d ago

What type of school are you going to? What does it cost?

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u/RippinFissure 1d ago

Does it matter?

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u/ImRestarted1 1d ago

Yeah…kind of a lot. Not just that though, most people don’t even explore the option of learning a trade. This whole notion of college being too expensive isnt actually that much of a reality for people who go to a community college and apply for grants and scholarships and get a job while in college like the majority of people used to do. College in America is seen as an experience after you graduate high school for 4 years to party. It’s a terrible investment on your future. I am definitely open to arguments about the types of classes you have to take and people like lawyers and doctors who basically need a good school to guarantee a better job after graduation.

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u/RippinFissure 1d ago

lol I've been in the trades (Ironworker) and am going back to school. Its a much better investment, trust me.

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u/ImRestarted1 1d ago

Ok I will trust you big dog.

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u/ElectronicInfluence4 1d ago

In the trades,still had student loans for several years. Also,it fuckin sucks

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u/ImRestarted1 13h ago

Try working like a Mexican. Lmao. Imagine hearing that from a Mexican

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u/Adjective-Noun-nnnn 1d ago

Federally-backed student loans are a fundamentally stupid idea, because they try to solve a problem* using the levers of market capitalism when the good being purchased** is inherently not subjective to normal market forces.

*(The problem: we want more people to access education and money is getting in the way.)

**(The good being purchased: education at real schools.)

What do we all learn is necessary for a free market?  Vigorous competition, elastic supply, and elastic demand.  (Among other things like private property rights etc.)  

Unfortunately, education is a luxury good.  The existing schools can't expand access without devaluing their brand.  It's also regulated by accreditation organizations and the barrier to enter as a new competitor is collosal.  You want to establish a new college?  OK well you'll need a big physical property to do it, plus a few dozen PhD educators, and likely millions of dollars of equipment.  And will students trust that you're a real university?  That really depends on employers, and nobody wants to be submitting job applications with a degree from a school nobody's ever heard of.

Our government thought when student loans stimulated the demand side of our Supply & Demand Curve, it would cause educators to expand access so they could get more of that sweet student loan money.  After all, if they just jacked up prices, students would just go elsewhere, right?  Nope.  The only competitors that popped up to take that money were scam colleges like ITT Tech and Trump University.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

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u/ImRestarted1 1d ago

Like maybe community college? I’ll be honest I didn’t sign up for a Ted talk today.

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u/Adjective-Noun-nnnn 1d ago

Depends on the degree or certification that guy's going for. In my state, there's a really economical option to do your first two years worth of credits at a community college, then transfer to a four year public university to finish the last two years of a bachelor's degree. Most states subsidize community colleges at this point. If they were smart, they'd also subsidize the four year public schools contingent upon staying in the state for some number of years. If you must go with a loan, there are cheaper options than student loans, like taking out a loan against your 401k or accessing a home equity line of credit, but obviously those require having collateral to leverage.

Sorry about the TED talk. I'm disappointed that we've come to the conclusion that college is bad or that funding education is a waste of money. We should be pouring every spare cent into education for the productivity of our economy and the good of our society. We just did it in a really stupid way because Americans treat capitalism like a religion and think it can solve all our problems.

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u/ImRestarted1 1d ago

I never thought it was a waste i always thought that 4 year colleges are a waste for the most part. You don’t just take student loans for education. You take them for housing as well. It’s just dumb. Dont go there if you don’t want that extreme hike in fees. I also think that people should consider trades way way more. Theyre seen too often as low income or useless because you don’t receive general education, but these guys usually end up making more than the majority of college grads.

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u/Adjective-Noun-nnnn 1d ago

Trades are great, but the more people say, "screw this I'm doing a trade!", the less valuable trade work will be. We're already seeing private equity firms gobbling up small trade firms and using that consolidated market to suppress wages. Four year degrees are pretty reliable so far, even if they're more expensive to obtain up front.

There's also something to be said for educating people in stuff that isn't strictly necessary for their work, like giving engineers some fluency in biology or even philosophy. COVID proved this conclusively. Not every bit of education needs to be lucrative for someone's future employer. It's nice to live in a society of smart, well-rounded people. At the end of the day, a democracy cannot be sustained by a stupid, uninformed populace with no knowledge of history, so a democracy must produce well rounded people to survive.

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u/ImRestarted1 1d ago

The issue you’re speaking about is why college is so expensive. There is truth to that quote “ hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times” personally I think we are at the weak men part. You don’t have to agree. Apparently there were some good times in the 80’s. We just need to do our part lol

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u/ImRestarted1 1d ago

Are we the good times or are we the weak men?

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u/Vast-Swimmer5844 2d ago

America’s original nepo babies!

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u/justcallmezach 1d ago

There was this whole "I'm better than you" aspect in the kids I went to high school with (graduated in 2002) that involved things like "I paid for my own car!" Well, I'll be damned if every kid that paid for his own car wasn't employed on the family farm by their parents. Who would have guessed that farmhand paid so damn well??

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u/inertiatic_espn 1d ago

Yeah, fucking farm kids teased me relentlessly because I worked at a grocery store in high school. They made twice as much money and acted like I was some kind of sucker because I didn't work on a farm like them. Sorry I wasn't gifted the best part time job ever because my daddy doesn't own farmland.

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u/justcallmezach 1d ago

Word. We did live on a farm, but it was a tiny "my dad did everything" 4 row planter 4 row combine, feed the 40 cattle before and after school, and I still worked at the local industrial plant 25 hours a week after school for a cool $5.25 an hour which wouldnt even buy a shitbox back then.

But yeah, the kid who's dad had at 10,000 head hog farm totally made enough money to drove an F-250 when he was a sophomore in HS 🤣

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u/TangledSunshineCA 17h ago

Had a friend that bought a pool table and when we were old enough a car doing construction for his dad. I suspect no one else who had more skills and real bills was making what he was. Eventually the family land was built out but it was a lot of family money for a long time.

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u/Proach89 1d ago

Same. All the farm kids had whatever they wanted and nice vehicle usually bought before they even had their license.

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u/Legitimate-Article50 22h ago

That was government subsidies.

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u/inertiatic_espn 22h ago

Oh, I'm aware. Having the farm kids make fun of me for working my shitty job at a grocery store and knowing that a portion of my paycheck went towards their parents so they could pay their kids double what I was making was a special kind of infuriating.

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u/Legitimate-Article50 3h ago

Farm kids are basically welfare babies. AND they do more drugs than is widely known.

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u/DJ_Advogato 1d ago

"“Major Major's father was a sober God-fearing man whose idea of a good joke was to lie about his age. He was a long-limbed farmer, a God-fearing, freedom-loving, law-abiding rugged individualist who held that federal aid to anyone but farmers was creeping socialism. He advocated thrift and hard work and disapproved of loose women who turned him down. His specialty was alfalfa, and he made a good thing out of not growing any. The government paid him well for every bushel of alfalfa he did not grow. The more alfalfa he did not grow, the more money the government gave him, and he spent every penny he didn't earn on new land to increase the amount of alfalfa he did not produce. Major Major's father worked without rest at not growing alfalfa. On long winter evenings he remained indoors and did not mend harness, and he sprang out of bed at the crack of noon every day just to make certain that the chores would not be done. He invested in land wisely and soon was not growing more alfalfa than any other man in the county. Neighbors sought him out for advice on all subjects, for he had made much money and was therefore wise. “As ye sow, so shall ye reap,” he counseled one and all, and everyone said, “Amen.”"

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u/Proach89 1d ago

My mom said once of a particular incident that farmers go to church on Sunday and screw everyone else on Monday.

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u/OldieButGoodyForNow 22h ago

Catch 22 ftw!

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u/justcallmezach 1d ago

I have 12 aunts and uncles. 7 of them being uncles and all farmers (don't get me started on the sexism and abuse in the family towards the 6 daughters - my mother being one of them.

Every one of those 7 brothers and their aggregate 25 kids farm. Every single one of them will cry about how there isn't any money in farming. Every single one of them live in million dollar homes (some of them, multi-million dollar homes) with multi-millions tied up in farm equipment assets, all with yearly new vehicles that I can't afford (and I do well for myself). Good fucking god, do they act like there is zero money in farming. I finally had to tell my mom "this woe-is-me tale is bullshit. You can't tell me that every last one of them is so bad at math that they're going to keep farming in light of all the money they're losing while living in million dollar homes and hundreds of thousands of dollars tied up in their vehicles and millions more tied up in their farm equipment. Stop being stupid. They're all rich, they just like to cry about it."

"Oh, I guess I never thought about it like that."

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u/Proach89 1d ago

A friend married into a farm. Farmer was always broke. Acted like loosing fifty cents was going to starve him. Literally.

My friend one day said they don't have much. I said are you kidding? They're sitting on roughly a $1,000,000 in just raw land that I don't think was entirely paid off, but I imagine it mostly was. They lived in a decent house and had a nice, but not huge farm. Probably $500,000 to $750,000 in equipment that mostly had loans on it. They hardly ever went anywhere, but the husband and wife both bought new trucks every two years. They had enough to buy two new trucks every two years, but not enough to buy health insurance. It was too expensive.

They're straight R and support maga. Everyone should pay their own way and no handouts. They had medical tragedy strike, largely because of self neglect. They liquidated the farm and stuck us with the bill. Great people.

I told my friend the people I know that don't have money live in rentals, not on a hundred plus acres. They are worried about groceries and Christmas presents year round, not buying two new truck every two years and paying loans on fractions of a million in equipment.

My friend then agreed that, they indeed were doing alright.

I know of another farmer that had a 500 acre farm paid off and applied to Easter Seals for a UTV so he could get around his farm better. Easter Seals supplied it. The piece of work didn't think there was anyone else in more need than a multi-millionaire.

These are just two stories of many. The farmers ( 90% of them?) voted for everyone to fend for themselves, except themselves. I have zero sympathy. JD could buy their farm for thirty cents on the dollar and most of them would vote for him again.

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u/Ok-Replacement9595 1d ago

I always thought there would be no way republicans would pull the trigger on SNAP benefits because of what a subsidy it is to agriculture and farmers and ranchers, but they did it anyways, and now we get them asking direct subsidies straight into their bank accounts.

I guess the plan was just to cut the doors out of the loop, and just pay big ag directly.

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u/Proach89 20h ago

I'm skeptical of how much ag subsidies are saving me. If they give them, hopefully farmers with a handful of red votes on their farm are too small to get them so they can suffer too.

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u/Ok-Replacement9595 19h ago

They are saving you nothing. At least SNAP provided something to the people. They dont even help farmers, they go straight into the pocket of AG businesses for seed, pesticides, and fertilizers.

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u/Proach89 19h ago

They tell us that lowering costs for others is supposed to lower end consumer costs. All it does is increase profit margins. I'd rather keep my money and let them figure out how to get their own.

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u/Ok-Replacement9595 18h ago

That is a lie. These are corporate subsidies. They go to shareholders as stock price increases.

But look at it this way, you get to subsiding corporations, and get increased prices on food. So it is a win win, just not for you.

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u/allkinds0ftime 18h ago edited 17h ago

I thought, growing up, that the rich white kid sports were skiing, golf, tennis and particularly sailing. I happened to aspire to the first and fourth and it turned out I had a knack for the first so I raced until I couldn’t any more. And you know what? No black poor people. Hardly ever.

Thats what made Tiger Woods and the Williams sisters so fucking goddam astounding. Not that they were phenomenal at their sports, which they were. That they fucking fought their way in to the rich white kid clubs.

Then I moved to Montana, where my wife is from.

One day, she got us tickets to the rodeo at Montana State, the college in town.

We showed up to this podunk excuse for a basketball stadium that spends half the year doubling as a rodeo venue.

Except, you couldn’t park in the main parking lot right in front of the stadium. Because it was fucking full of horse trailers.

Now, when you, reader/average Redditor, think horse trailer, you’re thinking of a rickety blue thing with two wheels that can hold two horses in it.

That is not what I’m talking about. I am talking about a fucking airstream fucking camper vehicle for 4 to 6 horses. Technically? It’s still a trailer. Way too big to hook up to a ball hitch, so it’s what you call a fifth wheel. A fifth wheel is something that hooks into your truck bed via a connection that looks a lot more like how a tractor trailer hooks up to the trailer part.

So yeah, technically still a trailer but you need a dually fucking monster truck to pull it and that truck right there is a six figure vehicle that gets 10-12 mpg and have you even looked at the prices of diesel ever in your life let alone now?

I’m not done with the fucking trailer. They all have air-conditioning units on top. Right next to their star link satellite hook ups on the top, because heaven forbid lil Sarah Joy can’t post her instas in transit.

Most of them have a totally separate living quarters for multiple humans at the front part, totally separated from the horses in the back. But all of them are air conditioned.

That human part also has a massive fucking closet for all the custom leather saddles and all the accoutrement that comes with them. Call it at least a half dozen of everything. Minimum. Probably more like a dozen of everything because you really need two for every horse right? Heaven forbid something breaks on the road and you can’t compete.

And these white kids, with their poor, lower class, farmer fathers. They drive all over the fucking north and Midwest and sometimes down to fucking Texas and back. All at 10 miles per gallon on diesel prices. With their six horses that all probably cost more than my truck. In trailers that are so fucking nice that they literally don’t need to get a hotel room. A trailer that probably costs closer to a small house price than the fucking truck pulling it.

Fuuuuuuck those sports I originally mentioned. Rodeo is the real rich white kid sport. Your average Goldman Sachs trust funder couldn’t snort enough coke in one lifetime on two fucking yachts to match that diesel bill.

Ffs they basically have a whole ESPN channel to themselves. I think it’s the one right before The Ocho.

But hell, if a farmer won’t BITCH AND MOAN about how fucking hard he has it.

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u/Just-Feedback-2223 1d ago

I know farmers. This is true.

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u/Proach89 20h ago

Same here. Personal experience.

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u/ThinkSharp 1d ago

That actually describes farming. Like many small businesses you might have millions on paper but it’s not showing because you put tons of income back in it and if you liquify the millions, your income is gone.

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u/Proach89 1d ago

Or some cases, liquidate the farm, stick us with hospital bills ( likely in the $ millions ) because you chose not to buy health insurance and be around a million to the good. I think they'll be ok.

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u/Abject_Map_3884 17h ago

Whats the percentage of farming that’s subsidized by the gov in the us?

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u/shelbygrapes 16h ago

Farmers complain more than anyone and have so much in assets. PLEASE feel free to look up how many of these maga farmers took PPE loans during covid with no reservations when they knew they would be forgiven. They will find every loophole and take all they can but have no compassion for anyone else.

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u/Popular-Okra-5658 1d ago

I agree with most of what you say. BUT, they still fill up grocery stores. Food isn’t 3d printed

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u/Cultural-Answer-321 1d ago

A lot of your food is imported. They aren't the only farmers on the planet.

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u/Mist_Rising 1d ago

No but it is a bundle of goods. If they aren't delivering, costs go up.

Also, they're not disappearing, they're consolidating under names like JD Vance and Scott Bessent. You know, people that definitely are there for ..not you.

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u/vobarex 1d ago

Exactly - Reddit…lol

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u/Proach89 1d ago

I agree, but I'm tired of someone taking my tax dollars, giving it to someone with far more money than me and trying to convince me I'm coming out ahead.