The Economy

Whereas my high school diploma has served me in good stead for nearly 50 years.

From my understanding of the farm / ranch economy, on an operation with a million dollars in equipment, on a million dollars worth of land, after a year of a million dollars in sales, that $33,000 would account for the entirety of the farmer's annual income.

Tough way to live unless you love it.

 

And they do, God bless 'em.

 

Even then, with all the planning that farmers do (and farmers pre-plan extensively and budget or they go broke in a hurry), something they cannot account for - a drought, a freeze, a spike in fertilizer or fuel prices, can cut into that 33k in a hurry.

 

$1M land, $1M equipment, $1M sales, where do we factor in the tens of thousands dollars in government subsidies?

And honestly, I don't even mean to call out that particular farmer. He/she should receive more subsidies. Let's start by giving them some of the subsidies doled out to corporate farm operations.

 

Corporate farms and energy companies with billions in profits.

 

Not that anybody who needs the lesson will absorb it, but this also points out yet again why electing a cartoonishly corrupt authoritarian loudmouth because he happens to hate the same folks you do is a terrible idea. Eventually the roulette wheel stops on zero and competence and trust is irreplaceable.

 

Almost all farms in the U.S. are classified as "family farms." They may be of the corporate form, but such are still owned entirely by a family or family group. Given that, a relatively shallow dive suggests that the accounting being bandied about here is probably pretty far afield (ha!) from reality ... net farm cash income (which includes subsidies, etc.) for, e.g., a farm with $1 million in sales would be several hundred thousand of dollars.

Farm-level average net cash income

I still shouldn't have been a farmer, though.

 

Maybe. But you have to account for the farmer and his wife both driving vehicles owned by the farm, pumping gas paid for by farm accounts and - if they are smart - using their home as the farm office.

My father-in-law technically owns nothing. Not the 4,000-square-foot house (he rents it from the farm) or even the $100,000 Jeep Grand Wagoneer his wife drives that has never left tarmac. Every accounting trick and loophole possible is used.

 

SBF guilty on all counts.

 

But all my money was tied up in FTX Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs!

I'm ruined!

 

I haven’t seen Ragu here since before the trial started. Hmm.

 

I wish someone knowledgeable would explain to me just what a NFT is.

Wait, wait, wait ... I really don't wish that.