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Slaves to Farming
As best as I can tell I’m one of the very few in the American political blogosphere who comments on trade negotiations — you can
check back through my archives for my many posts posts on the subject. It doesn’t seem to be a subject that captures the imagination, possibly because there’s not a great deal of partisan hay to be made from the subject. I’d still like to know the answer to a question I posed nearly a year ago to Candidate Obama: how would he revive the Doha trade talks?
I sort of feel his pain. But I'm not sure that lack of partisan venom is the reason for this. More likely it's because everyone has just given up. To me, writing about the Doha round is sort of like griping about how big states should have better representation in the Senate or musing about how we ought to eliminate the Defense Department. I mean, if that's what floats your boat, fine. The blogosphere is deep. But we all know this stuff is never going to happen, so it's sort of a waste of time, isn't it?
Trade talks aren't quite that bad. But they're close. The Doha round in particular lives or dies based on the willingness of rich nations to substantially reduce tariffs and subsidies on agricultural products, and seriously, what are the odds of that? We can't even have a serious discussion about reducing subsidies on corn ethanol, possibly the stupidest use of taxpayer dollars in the past century, let alone reducing farm support payments to ConAgra and Archer Daniels Midland. Meanwhile, the European attitude toward farming makes ours look positively levelheaded and beneficient. Paris would probably go up in flames if EU farm payments were ever rationalized.
So: what are the odds of making progress on agricultural issues? Especially these days, you'd need scientific notation to express it properly. Might as well wish for a pony instead.
I fear you are right. It
I fear you are right. It never ceases to amaze, corporate farmers total dependent on federal crop subsidies singing the praises of our free enterprise system (and voting Republican).
Doha Talks
Agreed. I think in previous years the only time farm subsidies were changed is when one nation decides to push for sanctions (maybe without fear of retaliation) on another through the WTO.
No big surprise ...
We are no more than three generations from the agrarian age, and every country has its own version of the farm mythos. So the ag industry everywhere is able to posture as the repository of solid, timeless virtues, yada yada.
But What If Farming Went the Way of Manufacturing?
How much of the U.S. agricultural edge would be eroded by free trade? Maybe we'd be a net winner, but I'm feeling a bit cautious these days, and I'm sure I'm not the only one...
Captive government
Just another example of how the U.S. government is increasingly under the thumb of certain industries, blocking much needed changes. Serious reform of agriculture is impossible, and the last few months shows how powerful the finance industry is even when it is close to a state of collapse. The next couple of weeks will demonstrate just how powerful pharma and health insurance are.
This, more than anything else, is the cause of national decline. Yet, you mention this to most people, and they have no idea what you're talking about.
Minor hijack
Nice to see Dave Schuler, one of the more rigorously analytical bloggers out there, get some deserved attention.
If you have time, would be interested to see your response to some of his thoughts on healthcare reform. A brief summary of his opinion would be that rather than expanding insurance, what we really need to lower healthcare costs is to expand the supply of healthcare providers - not just primary care doctors and nurses, but also paraprofessionals that can provide some routine care (along the lines of dental hygienists).
Examples: here, and more recently here.
Pennies
You forgot currency reform on the list of hopeless goo-goo causes. Abolish the Penny!
Good luck to any politician
Good luck to any politician or group (Republican or Democrat) that tries to take on the agriculture business and their government subsidies.
Besides the money involved, you'll probably find many politicians swayed by the argument that you can't afford to lose your agricultural base - you don't want to depend on other nations for a basic need like food. What happens in a war? What happens if another country cuts off your supply of milk or sugar or beef?
Sounds crazy, but I'd bet good money that the national security blackmail card is played more often that not behind the scenes.
US Senate gives farmers clout; what about other countries?
I suppose that agribusiness would still manage to get more than its fair share of the boodle if the Senate didn't exist, but without all those Senators representing rural states with lots of farmland and not too many people, it would certainly get less Federal boodle than it does now.
So that explains why agribusiness in the U.S. has too much clout. But how about other countries? Why do the farmers rule the roost in the other advanced democracies?
Amen, Kevin!
This cannot be said often enough.
"how would he revive the
"how would he revive the Doha trade talks?"
This is a very strange phrasing. The strong implication is that reviving the Doha round would be a good thing. Exactly why?
Sure the AEI and Heritage will tell us it has been "scientifically proven" that more free trade is always better, but I think we're all old enough now to know that there are plenty of caveats to that statement. Certainly people like Krugman or DeLong would not agree with it unequivocally.
And, let's face it, do we honestly believe that reviving Doha will actually IMPROVE things? The status quo is not perfect, but exactly what evidence is there that Doha will move them in a direction deemed desirable by most of the world (as opposed to the direction deemed desirable by the wealthiest 1% of America)?
If Obama spends his time doing NOTHING to address this issues, he's giving it exactly as much time as it deserves.
"You forgot currency reform
"You forgot currency reform on the list of hopeless goo-goo causes. Abolish the Penny!"
Metric system...
Honestly. You look at the list of stupidities in the US and it does make you think Bryan Caplan is right.
You mistake the purpose of
You mistake the purpose of the trade talks which is to provide the policy makers with a plausible reason for sticking it to their own agriculture lobbies.
Most politicians want to reduce agricultural subsidies regardless of what other countries might do. Its the agricultural lobby that stops them. So trade agreements are just a convenient form of policy laundering.
Small Error
"farm support payments to ConAgra and Archer Daniels Midland." Nope, they don't get direct payments. Scroll through the Environmental Working Group's list of payees and you won't find them (at least in the top 200).
You'd have to change the Constitution to reduce subsidies--rural areas are over represented in the Senate.