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Originally Posted by Cedars
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I see.
Of course in Australia we have the opposite problem. with companies like Ford Kodak, Mitsubishi, GMH being given tariffs protection, grants and tax breaks then shipping out (shutting down) or shipping profits overseas via dodgy pricing schemes with overseas affiliates/offices.
Just like the six trillion in personal wealth in off-shore accounts.
This is forcing governments everywhere to push down company and corporate tax and rely on Goods and Services taxes. Which of course impact mainly on the middle class and poor.
We have had the case of James Hardie moving to Europe to avoid paying compensation for asbestos victims (They didn't get away with it- but most victims died waiting.)
The Singapore Government offered a large multinational I was associated with
- Free industrial land (In Singapore!)
- Management housing (in a house with a backyard garden!)
- No taxes for 5 years
IF They made Singapore the base for all S. East Asia operations.
So the Australian office has been mothballed and services Singapore. they did. the office has been expanded 5 times in the last 10 years to a huge business.
So much for good governance?
Don't get me wrong I think farmers have it hard, I could not do what they do. They are the salt of the earth but these things need to be looked at at other than motherhood statements.
When most subsides go to the rich and powerful you have to wonder.
I couldn't find
any figure for farm subsidies at this link you gave- even a rubbery one:
Census of Agriculture - 2002 Census Publications - Volume 1 Chapter 1: U.S. National Level Data
or here
Census of Agriculture - 2002 Census Publications - 2002 Census Publications
Africa
I am sure you are right in what you say. I am not sure that subsides to rich westerners do no harm to poorer third world countries
It is easy enough to google up hundreds of references if you want
I'll keep putting them up if you want to knock them down.
Africa does not need more expensive food | Comment is free
Farm subsidies have many unintended effects (Everyday Citizen)
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A frequently lamented trend in rural Kansas is the erosion of rural communities as many young people leave farms to seek jobs in urban areas. This is primarily a consequence of the average farm size increasing by more than an order of magnitude over the past 50 years. Long gone are the days when you could make a decent living off a single section
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Oxfam America: UC Davis Prof Describes Farm Bill’s Effects on West African Farmers
Oxfam America: UC Davis Prof Describes Farm Bill’s Effects on West African Farmers
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In the period from 2001 to 2002, America's 25,000 cotton farmers received more in subsidies -- some $3 billion -- than the entire economic output of Burkina Faso, where two million people depend on cotton. Further, United States subsidies are concentrated on just 10 percent of its cotton farmers. Thus, the payments to about 2,500 relatively well-off farmers has the unintended but nevertheless real effect of impoverishing some 10 million rural poor people in West and Central Africa.
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Northern farm subsidies: African cotton farmers battling to survive
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Rich nations of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development spent about $360 bn on agricultural supports during 2001, for a range of commodities.
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http://www.ifpri.org/media/trade/tradebrief.htm
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Introduction
As world attention was absorbed by the war in Iraq last March, another international battle raged on, little noticed. Nations from all across the globe were deadlocked in an acrimonious conflict over trade in the world's most precious commodity -- food. Agricultural trade pits wealthy countries against poor countries and influential farmers' lobbies against consumers and taxpayers. March 31 was the deadline for World Trade Organization (WTO) members to reach an agreement on a framework for the agricultural trade negotiations, currently one of the most critical and delicate topics in the effort to advance progress in opening up the global marketplace.
These negotiations touch the lives of people from Iowa to Australia, and all the industrialized world's farmers in between. Above and beyond, the fates of hundreds of millions of small-scale farmers and poor consumers in developing countries struggling to survive on a dollar or two of income a day hang in the balance.
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Newsvine - America's Farm Subsidies and the World Economy
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All of this anger towards us is easily manipulated by the enemies of America. The young people of Third World countries are prime real estate for terrorists looking for recruits. They preach that America is trying to keep the rest of the world poor, that we are trying to oppress people by destroying agriculture in Third World countries. Reason Magazine notes:
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a bit of a different take on it here
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Without question, the current US subsidy system discriminates systematically against small farmers in the US and globally. But two linked misconceptions pervade the present subsidy debate: that subsidies are a principal—even the principal—cause of overproduction and falling prices; and, hence, that removing subsidies (and cutting tariffs) will significantly boost incomes for poor farmers in the developing world. Both these claims are inaccurate, and serve to obscure our understanding of the types of reforms that are required to restore real equity and long-term sustainability to the US and global farm economy.
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US Farm Subsidies and the Farm Economy: Myths, Realities, Alternatives | Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy
