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The suicide rate for farmers in the U.S. is more than double that of veterans

theguardian.com

371–380 of 391 posts

Re: The suicide rate for farmers in the U.S. is more than double that of veterans

#371

Many 'family farms' even in the dainty UK are multi-million $ businesses, run by people who know how to shear sheep and bunt hurdles and wurzels. They complain about the effect of market prices, and the worry they create, but they are taking on these risks unhedged (and farmers being unhedged makes me giggle). Similar size businesses would we hedging their FX risk through their local bank with simple FX forwards. Far…

In the case of Brexit "Fear of immigration drove the leave victory – not immigration itself" https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/24/voting-deta... Dominic Cummings, architect of the Vote Leave campaign has been pretty open about what they regarded as the winning factors: " Would we have won without immigration? No. Would we have won without £350m/NHS? All our research and the close result strongly suggests…

> Even though I was a Remain voter I have to credit Vote Leave with how dynamic and data driven their campaign waswhat fears to exploit... Shame on them.

Re: The suicide rate for farmers in the U.S. is more than double that of veterans

#372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not an example of a market inefficiency. It's an example of Amazon having a structural advantage that allows it to be profitable at a lower cost to consumers.

The market inefficiency being referenced was not Amazon coming in; it was the existing producers keeping their prices above fair market value by gentleman's agreement.

If they're both going to go out of business by cutting prices then the prices are already at fair market value.

Re: The suicide rate for farmers in the U.S. is more than double that of veterans

#373

Many 'family farms' even in the dainty UK are multi-million $ businesses, run by people who know how to shear sheep and bunt hurdles and wurzels. They complain about the effect of market prices, and the worry they create, but they are taking on these risks unhedged (and farmers being unhedged makes me giggle). Similar size businesses would we hedging their FX risk through their local bank with simple FX forwards. Far…

It sounds like you know some truly nasty people - the fact they are farmers is merely window dressing. Some huge broad brush strokes tarring people in that comment, and almost a gloating tone about the idea of people losing their livelihoods because of Brexit. Quite odd.

Re: The suicide rate for farmers in the U.S. is more than double that of veterans

#374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Black Lives Matter seems very throwback racial politics to me. Is that a DNC thing, specifically? No, but clearly there's an embrace of the movement in order to secure their votes and energy. So yes, as a national party, democrats are all about griping for oppressed minority groups. 60's radical ideology is what I understand stems from the Marxist shift from class struggle to oppressed identity groups in the 60's as…

> This is cultural Marxism. No, it's actually Marxism losing relevance in favor of something radically different, but in any case it's fairly irrelevant to the Democratic Party which never generally adopted a ”New Left” position, following classical moderate, non-Marxist pro-labor focus into the 80s, then abandoning that and anything like the Left generally for the center-right neoliberalism of Clinton's “Third Way”.

Bill Clinton was a centrist, and that's part of why I think he was so popular as president.

I had not considered what you say as a possibility. I always thought the Marxists were the real power in the Democratic party and they implemented their policies slowly and incrementally.

Does neoliberalism really hold sway in the Democratic party and what I considered incremental marxism was really just left-of-center Clintonian politics? How does the constant ratcheting up of identity politics stuff fit in to your theory, though? It seems integral to Democratic power and is ideologically not Clintonian.

Re: The suicide rate for farmers in the U.S. is more than double that of veterans

#375
post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This triggered the sort of low-rent political thread we don't want here. Please don't do that. We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15862439 and marked it well off-topic.

I thought everyone was very respectful.

It's way off topic.

Re: The suicide rate for farmers in the U.S. is more than double that of veterans

#376
post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno, man. I spent a few days working on building a house in the pouring rain, and it was better than the last 5 years I've been doing behind a computer. Only reason I didn't quit then and there is because I have financial obligations.

That's the difference between "a few days" and "a decade"

And that one choses to do it, rather it chosen for you.

Re: The suicide rate for farmers in the U.S. is more than double that of veterans

#377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your attempt to make an analogy here doesn't hold up. The anti-tax position would be to want to keep your car but also get use of the bicycle whenever you want it, since the true taxation analogy would be both you and the other person granting use of your property to others. Unless you want to argue about people paying more in taxes than they (feel they) get in benefits. In which case, well, the most rabid anti-tax p…

I'm not arguing for "the most rabid anti-tax people" and whatever their position may be. I'm arguing against a specific claim made by CydeWeys - that it's "hypocritical to argue against the downsides of civilization while taking advantages of all of its benefits" - and my analogies are specifically written to fit that claim. If the claim was that anti-tax people demand both not paying tax and that others do, then I w…

If the claim was that anti-tax people demand both not paying tax and that others do

But that is exactly it. They want all the benefits of living in a modern civilized society, but they don't want to pay their share of keeping that society going.

Re: The suicide rate for farmers in the U.S. is more than double that of veterans

#378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not arguing for "the most rabid anti-tax people" and whatever their position may be. I'm arguing against a specific claim made by CydeWeys - that it's "hypocritical to argue against the downsides of civilization while taking advantages of all of its benefits" - and my analogies are specifically written to fit that claim. If the claim was that anti-tax people demand both not paying tax and that others do, then I w…

If the claim was that anti-tax people demand both not paying tax and that others do But that is exactly it. They want all the benefits of living in a modern civilized society, but they don't want to pay their share of keeping that society going.

What you may be missing is that not everyone shares your assumption that taxation is a sine qua non of the benefits they want from modern society. They might be wrong, but that doesn't make them hypocrites.

Also, the claim that it's all hypocrisy reminds me of this bit from the TAL episode "What Kind of Country":

Jan Martin: And a gentleman came up to me and actually thanked me for the adopt a street light program. He had just written a check to the city for $300 to turn all the street lights back on in his neighborhood. And I did remind him that for $200 if he had supported the tax initiative, we could have had not only streetlights, but parks and firemen and swimming pools and community centers. That by combining our resources, we as a community can actually accomplish more than we as individuals.

Robert Smith: And he said?

Jan Martin: He said he would never support a tax increase.

Re: The suicide rate for farmers in the U.S. is more than double that of veterans

#380
post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those societies are their customers. It's where they're making all their money. Only off-the-grid homesteaders can make any credible claim to having no connection to society at large, but if they get sick, they better be honest with themselves and just die at home instead of going to get healthcare from a system they elected not to contribute to.

Why should they be taxed for the benefit of their customers? Aren't their customers paying them ?

A certain base is required for customers to exist. It's most beneficial to pay a tiny amount towards this vs. having no customers.
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