On Jun 16, 2008, at 10:43 AM, Michael Foster wrote:
Horace wrote:
On Jun 16, 2008, at 10:03 AM, Michael Foster wrote:
For example, the recent "meager" farm
subsidy bill was $307
billion! That's $1000 for each person in the U.S.,
or roughly $2600
per household. How is this meager?
I just wrote: "I don't like to be picky, but I
think that is roughly
a dollar per person, or about $3 per household."
Slight mistake on
my part! Only 3 orders of magnitude! Do you have a
reference on the
above. That seems a bit high. Over what period?
A bit high? Hell no, it's outrageous! Yes, it's $307 billion, no BS.
The time period is complicated as different parts of the bill take
effect over different time periods, or are one-time payments.
Well, if the total subsidy is $100/person per year, or less than $10/
person/month, then that is very very cheap insurance for the ability
to eat. Two or three times that is still not bad at all, assuming it
results in a similar offset in food costs. The real problem is the
degree to which such insurance is actually provided, vs one way
largess to big growers fashioned in legislation written by highly
paid lobbyists.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-05-15-farmbill_N.htm
The energy subsidies for petroleum have similar problems, and are
similarly difficult to pin down. See:
http://www.earthtrack.net
and for some detailed, yet also vague numbers see the table at the
bottom of:
http://www.earthtrack.net/earthtrack/index.asp?page_id=201&catid=73
Here's another viewpoint::
http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_vehicles/fuel_economy/subsidizing-big-
oil.html
Best regards,
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
