US beef prices have soared but farmers aren't making more money

Post by JKCalhoun » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 9:59 PM UTC

Tadpole9181 wrote: post #96

dannyw wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Logistics and labor. People under-estimate the cost of logistics and transport. Every inch of travel for any input, component, or the final product has to be paid; and even a wooden fencepost typically moves between at least 5 different locations before reaching retail. Let's use wooden posts as an example: 1. Forest. Trees are cut down into logs, and then transported to... 2. Lumbermill. Logs are cut to size, and th…

Its a good thing that we didn't start a war for no reason that caused the price of fuel to skyrocket.

Post by hn_throwaway_99 » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 10:41 PM UTC

falsemyrmidon wrote: post #60

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "greed" aspect is always bullshit unless there is a specific instance of market failure like monopoly power or collusion. This has definitely happened, so I'm not discounting it, but in those cases folks should just say the issue is monopoly concentration or collusion. Saying "greed" comes from people who fundamentally believe economics doesn't exist, or don't understand it. Everyone in the economy is "greedy". C…

Because markets are neither rational nor perfectly elastic.

Post by tpmoney » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 11:11 PM UTC

dieselgate wrote: post #112

markstos wrote: post #23

Animal agriculture is a key driver of climate change: https://sentientmedia.org/how-does-livestock-affect-climate-... Along with the high price, that's one more reason to not buy it.

In a recent Ezra Klein podcast about data center backlash he mentions being vegetarian and says something along the lines of "being anti data center because of water consumption is hypocritical if people eat meat"

Post by dieselgate » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 2:18 AM UTC

tpmoney wrote: post #115

dieselgate wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a recent Ezra Klein podcast about data center backlash he mentions being vegetarian and says something along the lines of "being anti data center because of water consumption is hypocritical if people eat meat"

Eh, that's pretty specious reasoning. If I start a business selling space water cannons that anyone can use to spray water at the ISS as it flies by. If these cannons are consuming whole farms worth of water in use and just blasting it out into space, you can still be mad at the water waste because you think that water could be put to better uses like growing animals for hot dogs and chicken nuggets, and not fleeting…

Post by BobbyTables2 » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 3:02 AM UTC

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #50

jermaustin1 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's less clear why those are so much more expensive now. It's basically, because everything else has gotten more expensive. Labor + fuel + wear and tear on equipment + raw materials. Inflation of a single thing, will have effects on anything down stream of that thing. And then there is the "greed" aspect, though overstated, where a company will see that costs have gone up in other sectors, so they raise their acco…

The "greed" aspect is always bullshit unless there is a specific instance of market failure like monopoly power or collusion. This has definitely happened, so I'm not discounting it, but in those cases folks should just say the issue is monopoly concentration or collusion. Saying "greed" comes from people who fundamentally believe economics doesn't exist, or don't understand it. Everyone in the economy is "greedy". C…