Free Capitalist Network - Community Archive
Mises Community Archive
An online community for fans of Austrian economics and libertarianism, featuring forums, user blogs, and more.

Food Subsidies

rated by 0 users
Not Answered This post has 0 verified answers | 5 Replies | 4 Followers

Not Ranked
Male
55 Posts
Points 1,060
Bill posted on Sun, Jul 24 2011 7:40 PM

What do you think about food subsidies? Do they make us fat or rather incentivize us to make poor choices in what we eat?

  • | Post Points: 65

All Replies

Top 500 Contributor
297 Posts
Points 5,250
Rcder replied on Sun, Jul 24 2011 8:04 PM

Typically food subsidies pay farmers not to produce food, so I'd say they encourage starvation.

  • | Post Points: 5
Top 500 Contributor
162 Posts
Points 2,455

Food subsidies subsidize empty calories (corn - and all of its derivatives, fructose specifically)  the government encourages us through economic incentives to buy food that makes us FAT and gives us DIABETES.  Then they try and tax people to curb that very behavior that they encourage.

 

watch this and become aware

  • | Post Points: 5
Top 50 Contributor
Male
1,687 Posts
Points 22,990
Bogart replied on Tue, Jul 26 2011 2:43 PM

Food subsidies along with subsidies for providing other essential consumer goods like health care services are evil.  These subsidies destroy the pricing system and therefore destroy the ability of entrepreneurs to perform economic calculations which eventually leads to less production and impoverishment. 

But with food subsidies these ends are not evil enough, government subsidizes only 10 products leaving all others to fend for themselves.  Of course businesses take subsidies in one product and use that stolen wealth as capital to allow them to enter other markets and out compete those without the subsidies.  But even this is not bad enough.  This means that there is plent of subsidized stuff like corn for ethanol and less of the unsubsidized stuff like fresh vegetables.

So yes subsidies make people fatter than they would be otherwise.

  • | Post Points: 20
Top 50 Contributor
Male
2,687 Posts
Points 48,995

I used to be a cashier at Kmart.  It was pretty common for people to buy soda, candy, potato chips and other junk food (Kmart doesn't sell healthy food) with their EBT.

  • | Post Points: 5
Top 500 Contributor
162 Posts
Points 2,455

It's not just that, but that by setting up a price ceiling they encourage overproduction.  This is what provides incentive for people to feed cattle (unnaturally) grains rather than grass, they get sick, we get sick, blah blah blah...This is what provides the incentive for them to make all of the derivatives in the first place (fructose) and put it in everything from bread, cool whip, to cookies, and beverages of all kinds.

and corn is a vegetable.  Ethanol (Pure grain alcohol) can be made with anything with sugar.  Internal combustion engies were created by burning alcohol...predating oil and gasoline

  • | Post Points: 5
Page 1 of 1 (6 items) | RSS