Wednesday 26 October 2011

Subsidies, the taxpayers curse ...

... and the litmus test for any business, and that includes farming in Wales.

Today's report that farmers in Wales receive £280 million in subsidies (this amount equates to 80% of their income) is a cautionary indicator to those who generate the base wealth of Britain, it means farming in Wales has become an economic junkie, unable to function without its next "financial fix".

If our farmers (all the British farmers) need so much money from the British taxpayers, and EU money arriving in Britain is British taxes, then the businesses are probably not viable and should be allowed to sink with all the other insolvent businesses (including banks).

Government subsidies hide reality.

3 comments:

  1. Oh dear, what a poorly thought out blog. Where do you think you get your food from? Without doubt most of the food on your plate comes from Welsh farms, not only do they bring the food on your plate the conservation work they do for the enviroment, including lowering our carbon emissions. Tell me when you retire will you be claiming your pension, a subisidy, or will you give the money back?

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  2. Interesting. I wondered why there is such a large subsidy.

    Is it due to simply the underpricing of food? Or could it be to the ruthless price cutting by the supermarket cartel that force down farm prices in order to maximise their own profit margins?

    The end result is that we end up paying the subsidy because the farmers are not able to command realistic prices. The super markets can (and do) go abroad for their stock if the price is not to their satisfaction.

    The end result of this food globalisation is that productive UK farmers cannot sell their goods without a subsidy. Meanwhile ineffective and freeloading UK farmers get away with a nice fat subsidy when they should really go bust.

    Subsidies are bad and corrosive. But protecting your markets from unfair competition (and the associated price rigging) isn't and that is what we should be doing.

    But try and tell anyone in government we should be protecting our markets. You might as well talk to a brick wall.

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  3. .... you have the rights of the dilemma Bill, I would advocate a green tax on imports (huge) to encourage home grown production, not just farming, we did similar during the middle of the 20th century when we were unable to generate sufficient foreign currency.

    Such a tax would raise the cheap imports to a level that our efficient farmers could compete with, the other farmers (other businesses) should be allowed to fold if they cannot compete with the best.

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