grinder wrote:
> "Rudy Canoza" > wrote in message
> link.net...
> > grinder wrote:
> >> "Bob Kolker" > wrote in message
> >> ...
> >>> grinder wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> Not to mention the loss of $100 million in produce!!!
> >>> This is a break for Florida though. It is an Ill Wind that does not blow
> >>> somebody some good somewhere.
> >>>
> >>> Wait until next year. The California crop will be bigger and jucier than
> >>> ever and all this will be forgotten.
> >>>
> >>> Bob Kolker
> >>>
> >>
> >> The farmers that have to increase their debt or lose their farms will not
> >> forget.
> >
> > And the dilettante gentleman farmers will remember for a long time, too.
> > I have a colleague who has a small avocado farm (he calls it a ranch, for
> > some reason), and last year he sold his crop for a whopping $9,000. This
> > guy brags to whomever will listen that he doesn't pay any taxes due to all
> > the "business expense" tax deductions he gets to take; I mean, he just
> > cackles over it. But he was considerably more somber the other day when
> > he was relating that it was going to cost him something like $1800 PER
> > NIGHT to light his smudge pots. I have no doubt that he'll quickly snap
> > up any financial assistance offered by the county, state or federal
> > governments.
>
> Low interest loans are still loans.

True, but not all the contents of the goodies-for-farmers trough are
loans, and subsidized interest rates are not generally available to
most other businesses. There is no valid reason whatever for the
coddling of farmers.