r/LeopardsAteMyFarm • u/XennialPlotTwist • 2d ago

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

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

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

13.2k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

838 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

78

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!"

34

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.

12

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.

-7

u/ImRestarted1 1d ago

Isnt there like a cheaper option than student loans?

4

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. 

0

u/ImRestarted1 1d ago

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

0

u/RippinFissure 1d ago

Does it matter?

-1

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.

1

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.

1

u/ImRestarted1 1d ago

Ok I will trust you big dog.

1

u/ElectronicInfluence4 1d ago

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

1

u/ImRestarted1 13h ago

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

1

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.

2

u/ImRestarted1 1d ago

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

1

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.

1

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.

1

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.

1

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

1

u/Adjective-Noun-nnnn 1d ago

That cycle exists because rich cunts want it to exist. We could just make a sustainable society instead, but that's not profitable for the ownership class.

1

u/ImRestarted1 1d ago

Blame it on anyone else. People have always been that rich lol. It’s okay, hopefully we create strong men. I want to edit this to say that they literally have been. You can do the conversion rates ok their dollars at the time with inflation.

→ More replies (0)

0

u/ImRestarted1 1d ago

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