POTUS 45.20 - Doddering Dotards Dodging Detente

[Kepler]

Re: POTUS 45.20 - Doddering Dotards Dodging Detente

Family farms are always used as a skirt to hide GOP policies favoring the super rich behind. For the record I am all for sheltering the family farm from my rules. But I also have a feeling there are only like 42 of them left in the whole country.

Fun fact: I have a college friend who runs a chicken farm that has been in his family for generations.

[Kepler]

Re: POTUS 45.20 - Doddering Dotards Dodging Detente

I'm not even against the estate taxes, and possibly increasing them. I just think there need to be protections in there for certain situations. One of which is when family businesses would be destroyed. Regardless of what people think, everyone benefits from having independently owned and operated farms, and not having production owned by 2-3 huge companies.

I agree with this completely, but like I said, it's used as a human shield for the super rich. I would think it is relatively to protect the actual family farmers and other independent small business owners while also F-CKING THE GODD-MN WALTON CHILDREN UP THE AS-S.

[bigblue_dl]

Re: POTUS 45.20 - Doddering Dotards Dodging Detente

Family farms are always used as a skirt to hide GOP policies favoring the super rich behind. For the record I am all for sheltering the family farm from my rules. But I also have a feeling there are only like 42 of them left in the whole country.

Fun fact: I have a college friend who runs a chicken farm that has been in his family for generations.

There are more than 42 family farms in the small county in MN where our farm is.

[Kepler]

Re: POTUS 45.20 - Doddering Dotards Dodging Detente

There are more than 42 family farms in the small county in MN where our farm is.

I was being facetious.

[bigblue_dl]

Re: POTUS 45.20 - Doddering Dotards Dodging Detente

I was being facetious.

I know, just pointing out that your number is absurdly low, which was probably intentional.

But, even still, the number of family owned farms has decreased by huge numbers in the last 30-40 years. Also, something to know, the average farmer in the US is 56 years old. We're heading for a very big shift in agriculture in the US, and farms are going to be consolidated even more as less young people are staying home to farm. I made the decision to take over the family business from my dad when he retires, my ancestors put too much work into that land for me to just let it all fall apart. I have about 9 years left of being an engineer, then I'll be quitting my job and taking over the farm.

[rufus]

Re: POTUS 45.20 - Doddering Dotards Dodging Detente

There are more than 42 family farms in the small county in MN where our farm is.

Your grandfather's farm is really worth more than $10 million?

[Handyman]

Re: POTUS 45.20 - Doddering Dotards Dodging Detente

Well there has to be a way to protect the family farm and still keep the various tax structures in place. Of course that would take people thinking and no one in Govt. does that.

[trixR4kids]

Re: POTUS 45.20 - Doddering Dotards Dodging Detente

Well there has to be a way to protect the family farm and still keep the various tax structures in place. Of course that would take people thinking and no one in Govt. does that.

They're thinking they're just really cynical about it. They know that they can protect the small farm and raise taxes on billionaires but they'd rather just use the farm as a political pawn for their dumb supporters and use it to lower taxes on the top 1%.

[unofan]

Family farms are always used as a skirt to hide GOP policies favoring the super rich behind. For the record I am all for sheltering the family farm from my rules. But I also have a feeling there are only like 42 of them left in the whole country.

Fun fact: I have a college friend who runs a chicken farm that has been in his family for generations.

I disagree. Family farms sitting on millions of dollars in land are no different than Trump's dad sitting on millions of real estate in NYC. It still leads to an intergenerational wealth transfer which you have said repeatedly on here is bad.

You want to avoid mega corporate farms owning all farmland, start enforcing anti trust laws. The estate tax isn't the issue on that front.

And if you still want to carve out exceptions to the estate tax, then the trade-off is abolishing all stepped up basis upon death and treating capital gains as ordinary income. That way when the land that your great great grandpa bought for $1/acre does inevitably get sold for $10,000/acre, you're paying full taxes on $9,999.

[Kepler]

Re: POTUS 45.20 - Doddering Dotards Dodging Detente

I know, just pointing out that your number is absurdly low, which was probably intentional.

But, even still, the number of family owned farms has decreased by huge numbers in the last 30-40 years. Also, something to know, the average farmer in the US is 56 years old. We're heading for a very big shift in agriculture in the US, and farms are going to be consolidated even more as less young people are staying home to farm. I made the decision to take over the family business from my dad when he retires, my ancestors put too much work into that land for me to just let it all fall apart. I have about 9 years left of being an engineer, then I'll be quitting my job and taking over the farm.

I thought this shift had already taken. Deliberately not researching the numbers, my layman's uninformed guess would be that farmers were 99% of the workforce in 1900 and 9% of the workforce in 2000.

Edit: after a quick google I'm way off on the numbers but pretty close in the ratio:



Here's some wonderful comparative data from Europe:

[bigblue_dl]

Re: POTUS 45.20 - Doddering Dotards Dodging Detente

Your grandfather's farm is really worth more than $10 million?

Good farm land is not cheap. We have obviously expanded from the farm my grandpa grew up on, it was needed in order to stay solvent. A 200 acre farm will not support a family anymore. We now have about 2000 acres and the current valuation of land in our county is about $7000 an acre. Add in probably about $5m work of equipment needed to run that land, and the value of buildings and other structures needed to run a farm, and it is worth well over $10 million. If we downsized significantly, there would no longer be enough income to remain profitable.

[bigblue_dl]

Re: POTUS 45.20 - Doddering Dotards Dodging Detente

I thought this shift had already taken. Deliberately not researching the numbers, my layman's uninformed guess would be that farmers were 99% of the workforce in 1900 and 9% of the workforce in 2000.

Edit: after a quick google I'm way off on the numbers but pretty close in the ratio:

Yeah that shift has already happened, but another one is coming.

[Kepler]

Re: POTUS 45.20 - Doddering Dotards Dodging Detente

I disagree. Family farms sitting on millions of dollars in land are no different than Trump's dad sitting on millions of real estate in NYC. It still leads to an intergenerational wealth transfer which you have said repeatedly on here is bad.

I dunno, I may be falling for the Bucolic Fallacy but it seems to me that owning a $10M farm is basically just owning a farm. That sh-t's expensive and the profit margin is tiny. Having a $10M house, OTOH, means you're a fat f-ck who I want to hang on a hook and bleed until your desiccated body decomposes.

It's a perception thing.

[dxmnkd316]

Re: POTUS 45.20 - Doddering Dotards Dodging Detente

I dunno, I may be falling for the Bucolic Fallacy but it seems to me that owning a $10M farm is basically just owning a farm. That sh-t's expensive and the profit margin is tiny. Having a $10M house, OTOH, means you're a fat f-ck who I want to hang on a hook and bleed until your desiccated body decomposes.

It's a perception thing.

Completely agree.

[RaceBoarder]

Re: POTUS 45.20 - Doddering Dotards Dodging Detente

It's not that hard to picture $10 mil. after jotting down the numbers. Land is one thing, but equipment is another. A single combine costs as much as a decently good house in most of the country ($300-500k). After adding on hardware to the various base tractors, you can end up with a value in 7-figures for equipment alone fairly easily.