Farmers don't pay enough to get Americans to work for them, so....

Bankruptcy.

And homelessness, looking for a job at Walmart.

I acknowledge SOME people are truly stuck. Most are not. There's almost always something that can be done, even if it's just trying to get a raise in your current job by performing well.

Pursue promotions. Take on work others won't do.

Though it isn't a long term answer, working more hours to get some extra money is often an option.

Reduce expenses as far as possible. Is there anything you can forgo for a while? Having even a couple of weeks salary in the bank is a great hedge against unexpected difficulties.

If friends or family can help, call on them.

If educational opportunities are available, use them.

If you can apprentice in a trade, do it. Remember, you aren't signing up for forever; you're only trying to get a little bit wealthier.

If you truly can't do anything, well, you're left with waiting for an opportunity to come your way. Your prospects aren't good because unexpected adversities occur much more often than unexpected benefits. But keep your eyes open.

Every situation is unique. Each has its own pitfalls, but often has its own opportunities as well.

And missing a leg! And blind! And mentally handicapped!

Yes, you can contrive all sorts of hopeless cases, but unless you've explored all the options, you shouldn't assume you're hopeless.

There sure as fuck are.

The fact that I have a good education and paid off my last student loans several years ago is due largely to my grandparents on my dad's side.

A lot of what I have in life, I have because of the actions of others, not because I did it all myself. The difference between me and a lot of others who were equally lucky is that I'm capable of admitting it.

Where's @evenflow when you need someone to fill in the blanks on farm living.

Marry a European and get EU citizenship

You’re right. Only a portion of the population is truly “stuck”. Most others are able to find work and, with the help of social safety nets, “pull themselves up by their bootstraps”. The number of people who actually ‘scam’ the system are so few and usually caught.


None of which has anything to do with the plight of farmers.


To which your response was this:

And still results in this:

Fantastic, but that's not what I'm talking about.

Sure, you were fortunate to be born in the situation you were. You won the karma lottery just being born in this society in this era, as opposed to what would've been the likely outcome had you been born in any earlier time or place. And you had family that supported you. That's great, and seeking the support of family is one of the things I recommended above.

But being fortunate isn't a life strategy. You don't get to simply choose it.

Yes, it sucks that one person is washing dishes for minimum wage and another person is reclining on a yacht surrounded by supermodels. The question is: what should the person washing dishes do if they want something better?

You seem stuck on me providing some solution for the farmers. But saving them or preserving their situations is completely unimportant to me and that's NOT the problem I want to solve. I want farm goods efficiently supplied to the marketplace so that the people who want and need them can buy them. And I'd like it to be done without subsidies, etc. from the government that distort the market and encourage over-production.

So let me say it again: if farmers can't farm profitably, they should STOP being farmers. Unless there's some unreasonable law or regulation that's preventing them from operating profitably, their business model is not viable, and their business should be dissolved and its capital moved to more productive uses.

You keep saying shit like this as if I voted for Trump, I remind you yet again that I didn't. I also never once believed Mexico was going to pay for the wall so your little "gotcha, ha ha" moment failed.

You got the quote wrong, dummy. And again, I didn't vote for Trump so go ahead report him. That's two fails in a roww, congratulations.

Fuck Boeing if they're getting subsidies. Government picking winners and losers is crony capitalism, I'm against crony capitalism. Three fails in a row, you got the hat trick.

That’s wonderful. You have just proven how one can read all the books they like, but if you haven’t lived in the real world, you don’t know what you’re talking about.

Can anyone else hear this really shrill, nasally whining noise?

are you starting to get that left to it's own devices, "crony" is the ONLY type of capitalism?

“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.”

― Frédéric Bastiat

I do live in the real world. And I understand how it works.

"Crony capitalism" is just the latest flavor of "no true Scotsman".

Do you realize Bastiat's quote is about the plunder of socialism?

Does it become LESS applicable to capitalist exploitation because of that?

Does Nazism become better if they decide to stick Inuits in the gas chambers instead of Jews?

No...., no, you really don't.

Irony meter . . . pegged! SHE'S GONNA BLOW!!!!

I prefer Carlin. “It’s a big club and you and I ain’t in the big club.”

But you refer to people who want do something about that as "Socialists" or *gasp* Communists

I refer to people who call themselves as socialists or praise communist dictators as socialists or communists. If you truly want to put an end to the plutocratic system we live under without putting us under a new system that results in socialistic policies then we can be allies.

I'm thrilled by the prospect.

Is that the same thrill that Chris Mathews got about Obama?

Just because someone calls themselves a socialist or a communist does not mean they also support an authoritative means of government. In fact, supporting a socialist or communist economic policy is anti-authoritative. If one were to truly look into both the economic system as well as the means of government.

What are your thoughts on Robert Reich?

He's a hack.

I rather like the regulated and accountable socialism in my province and country.

I'm old enough to remember when it was actually more entrenched and times were markedly better for most.

I think it's interesting that a small segment of our population who, by and large, identify is conservatives, benefit from what's probably the most socialist policy in the books.