by Rick Lowe

Ludwig von Mises, “one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th Century” according to Mark Thornton , editor of The Quotable Mises released in 2005 by The Ludwig von Mises Institute said this about farm programs:

It is not in the power of government to make everybody more prosperous. … … …The counterpart of the of the farmer’s higher standard of living is the lowering of the standard of living of the rest of the nation.

Of course Mises was referring to restricting production to raise prices of farm products. But paying farmers more of a subsidy will help no one but the farmer either.

On the other hand, Mr. Leslie Miller, Minister of Agriculture stated to the press recently that he will recommend increasing the subsidy already being paid by taxpayers to the local farmers.

Hopefully Mr. Miller will avail himself of some of the huge library of literature on the economic fallacy of farm subsidies before he recommends that parliament raise the subsidies even more.

With any luck he will then recommend that the subsidies should be removed. The idea is produce products people want, as he alluded to in the same press conference mentioned earlier. We doubt this will happen though because it’s not politically expedient. In other words, it sounds great that he is going "give" the farmers something, but the other side of the ledger, which is always unspoken, is that he is taking taxes from everyone else to do that.

If parliament does not remove the subsidies maybe other businesses should apply for them as surely it’s not fair for one group to receive them while others do not?