From: Michael Lorrey (retroman@tpk.net)
Date: Sat Mar 01 1997 - 08:53:57 MST
Anders Sandberg wrote:
>
> On Sat, 1 Mar 1997, J. de Lyser wrote:
>
> > It would surely be good for agriculture to allow modification, and maybe
> > then those subsidies would finally end, opening the doors for a free world
> > market ?
>
> Unfortunately the groups that currently do modifications are the big
> corporations; they of course thrive in a strictly regulated field since
> they can lunch with government officials and afford expensive security,
> labs and paperwork. In a less regulated field they would have more
> competition, but they would still be the biggest.
>
Also, subsidies are paid by governments to farmers because of
OVERSUPPLY. Farmers are just too good at their jobs. Granted that with
some areas of the world in famine, this should not be true, but the
limits of transportation and distribution are at fault here, not
farmers. Vermont bans the use of BGH in domestic milk that can carry the
Vermont label, and is in a court battle with industry groups from other
states over this, as it makes their milk appear to be inferior in the
market compared to the "hormone free" Vermont made milk. Farmers have
needed subsidies beacuse their business is heavily laden with capital
costs. SInce the Federal Reserve and the other people who determine the
official inflation rate and interest rates have consistently
overestimated inflation, farmers capital costs have been unfairly higher
than they should be, thus making their totally competetive market drift
toward consolidation in big corporate farming. It is this sort of
influence of government on economic factors that leads to enterprise
consolidation and the development of monopolies. THis is what
mercantilism is.
--
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Michael Lorrey
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#!/usr/local/bin/perl-0777---export-a-crypto-system-sig-RC4-3-lines-PERL
@k=unpack('C*',pack('H*',shift));for(@t=@s=0..255){$y=($k[$_%@k]+$s[$x=$_
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