America's 250th
- Thread starter WTFMatt
- Start date
Yup, being virtuous must mean you’re a socialist. It’s just lazy.
Well, it should be "more socialist than giving farmers..." but I regress. There is a big difference between social programs and the entire governing system being socialist. Specifically, there are several commodities that had wild swings for several years and they had an adverse affect on the economy. Such as food, oil and gas. The attempt is to avoid the peaks and valleys and maintain a steady supply for the consumer without boom and bust which is hard to do. Perhaps you are old enough to recall, I was living in Grand Island when they came out with the Pic Certificates for farmers. Essentially the farmer agreed not to plant corn in exchange for these certificates. Farmers had no input costs and many didn't plant and I recall, although all of this is a bit foggy from old age, that was a wet spring and summer and very little irrigation was used. I just remember many stories of farmers taking off on vacations they never had during that time of year. That is just one example.
Yep let one of these Liberal fks switch lives with anyone of our Foreign visitors here for the World Cup for 6 months. Then come back and see what America is like now.
Amen! People visiting here seemed so impressed and fell in love with America.
And ranch dressing...so many people had it for the first time!
June-September is my least favorite time in South Carolina and makes me extremely grateful for air conditioning.
I remember a few years ago when we were lucky enough to have the Government tell us we could celebrate the 4th of July.
How can it be socialism when the public doesn't own the means of production?
You don't see the difference between farmers still having to work hard and the government providing them a little bit of money to stabilize food prices / prevent mass bankruptcies vs the government owning the means, production & operations of grocery stores & housing?
I'm not saying the former is right, just that's it's not socialism.
You do realize you'd only be a farmers for 7, maybe 9 months if you sat back and collected subsidy checks for "just being a farmer".
With true welfare, yes, you can sit back, do nothing and collect some money. The same can't be said with farming.
Just because part of socialism is the distribution of wealth doesn't mean it's actually socialism. That's like saying giving a Christmas gift is a form of socialism. It wouldn't be, not even close, as socialism has to involve other factors than just "distribution of wealth" in order for it to be considered socialism.
Vacation for Grand Island farmers is taking their family to Island Oasis or the Hall County Fair.
You earned that in return for the service you gave to our country.
I find it hard to get hyped up for the 4th of July like I always used to now that our leaders for most of the past decade are so fundamentally anti-American, and are intentionally destroying so much of what we were always taught was amazing about our country. It’s like living in bizarro world.
I mean this is a perfect example - half of our country believes this exact same thing because they are told it over and over and over by the media they consume. We see posts about what a dangerous hellhole American cities are on this site all the time! Haha. It's really really hard to break through the propaganda. Way too many of our fellow citizens genuinely believe things that are just not at all true, and get further and further radicalized. It's hard to come back from that.
Anyway, I still celebrated all weekend with my 5 year old daughter and had plenty of fun, and the fact that she's just starting to learn about American history and what our country is supposed to stand for got me feeling more patriotic than I had in awhile. She and her generation deserve a version of America that represents the real American values that so many people fought for over the past 250 years, and that way too many of us always took for granted.
I mean this is a perfect example - half of our country believes this exact same thing because they are told it over and over and over by the media they consume. We see posts about what a dangerous hellhole American cities are on this site all the time! Haha. It's really really hard to break through the propaganda. Way too many of our fellow citizens genuinely believe things that are just not at all true, and get further and further radicalized. It's hard to come back from that.
Anyway, I still celebrated all weekend with my 5 year old daughter and had plenty of fun, and the fact that she's just starting to learn about American history and what our country is supposed to stand for got me feeling more patriotic than I had in awhile. She and her generation deserve a version of America that represents the real American values that so many people fought for over the past 250 years, and that way too many of us always took for granted.
If you were unable to celebrate the 4th because you were busy or you don't have friends or don't have friends with a boat and/or lake house...that is one thing.
If you refused to celebrate the 4th because of some sort of "principle" you are a dork.
If you refused to celebrate the 4th because of some sort of "principle" you are a dork.
Two things can be true at the same time. There are cities in America that are Hell holes in spots of the city and other spots in the same city are really nice. Also unfortunately there are people who believe EVERYTHING they see or hear on social media and regularly media .
So true!
You can be in Chicago and in Wriglyville, having the best ******* time...and you can go about 8 blocks over and things change very very fast.
We went to one of the Orange Bowls in Miami at the original stadium.wr got there early and asked a cop we wanted to go look for sovereigns and food . He told us you can go 3-4 blocks East, west and north and you would be OK. But if you go 1 block south they wouldn’t be good .
First off, the government cutting checks to grain farmers does little for our food supply. Roughly 40% of corn goes to ethanol. Realistically it probably has the opposite effect by encouraging less farm diversification.
The same government also, on an annual basis, pays for a large percentage of crop insurance subsidies. USDA also buys grain. USDA issues loans. And so on. It's a wee bit more than cutting a check every couple of years. The government is embedded in grain farming, from start to finish.
So, the government might not own the whole agricultural chain, but they sure are a lot more involved than people here want to acknowledge.
If people want to stick to a rigid definition, more power to you.
A person giving a present is far different from the government finacially propping up a whole group of people, year after year, for what is now starting to encompass generations.
This is especially true here in Florida.
I don't know how anyone lived here before AC!
One fact that is commonly over looked is the value of other products of ethanol production. Distillers grains DRAMATICALLY increase the efficiency of cattle when fed as a protein source. That decreases or eliminates the need for protein in the form of soybean meal and alfalfa. You can formulate rations for beef cows using distillers by-products and corn stalks with no other plant material. Additionally corn oil is extracted from the corn and can be refined for human consumption, commercial purposes or biofuel.
Ethanol production today is at a point where it can exist without government subsidies. The one thing it needs now is for government (EPA) to get out of the way of higher blends. No doubt a huge amount of corn is used for ethanol but there’s way more benefit from that than the ethanol produced.
I feel the same way about bidets....used one in Italy in 09 and have had one ever since. Its a life changer
As a self-identifying dork, I don't appreciate you lumping them in with me.
Yes, the actual meaning of words, who needs it, amiright? It's such a hassle. Why would anyone ever take anything you say seriously when you can't understand, or don't want to accept, the meaning of words?
Are both of you saying that you want to live by "exact words" because there was a Brady Bunch episode that showed how that works out.
I agree with pretty much everything you said.
Your very last sentence is funny to me. "a rigid definition". You mean the actual definition, right? Not some watered down, loosey goosey definition where most things could be considered "socialism".
Yes, exactly. But if you narrowed down "socialism" to a super simple definition then you can make the argument (using that same simple & lame definition) that gift giving is a form of socialism.
Like if someone were to say, "Part of socialism is the distribution of wealth." and made that their point as to why farm subsidies is socialism. Well, that would be silly.