Well we could start with a strict curtailment of foreign aid. We have to put our house in order first.
Could farm subsidies be ended?
Norman, we are at war with other global players. Yes we do provide foreign aid to other nations. And if we weren’t doing it, it would be about ten minutes before China would be. And then our troops would be brought home from around the world and guess whose would replace them.
It is all a part of hegemony and who is going to fill the global vacuum of leadership.
If we look at foreign aid as a percentage of our national spending (even healthy spending), it’s not outlandish at all.
The United States has had a more stable food supply than just about any other nation on earth. We have sold wheat and other food stuffs to nations all over the world. Part of the reason why food prices don’t fluctuate, and whole food lines don’t go from surplus to zero every so often, is because the government pays varying amounts of people to not grow food. The prices stay roughly steady, and it remains profitable for people that do produce, to do so.
I get the government involvement part of it, and I don’t necessarily like it. I’m just not convinced we would get the outcome we wanted if the farm subsidies were eliminated.
I am not happy to see those funds growing exponentially, so I do see some problems. And after saying all this, if someone could come to me with a great explanation that would reveal how things could be stabilized as well without all of them, I would be willing to listen.