House Agriculture Committee Farm Bill Would Throw 2 to 3 Million People Off of SNAP

[BobbyG]

I think you really can't say this enough, because it's simply not inside the world-model of most people's thinking these days, which is trapped inside a two-party system only focused on winning elections:

If you have an economic system that is supposedly based on exponential growth in "consumer spending," yet you have an economic system that actually continues to impoverish a large part (in this case, 36%) of its consumer base, eventually you have an economic system that simply implodes on itself, exactly in its own footprint.

Derrick Jensen used the term "Endgame," which is way cool, but then people forgot all about his book, and now it's back to voting for one party or another during elections.  Meanwhile, those 36% of the people have become simply invisible.

I say, good luck with that lifestyle, America...

House Agriculture Committee Farm Bill Would Throw 2 to 3 Million People Off of SNAP
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3800

[BobbyG]

More recent update around the Farm Bill, as of one month before the elections.  "

The Farm Bill Has Expired: Five Reasons That's a Big Deal" from "Good." 
http://www.good.is/posts/the-farm-bill-has-expired-five-reasons-that-s-a-big-deal

As recently as Nov. 12, in Doomstead Diner, Steve Lendman writes about the coming "Grand Betrayal" (as it's being called in the Doomoverse) that is coming because of the "fiscal cliff" negotiations. 

http://www.doomsteaddiner.org/blog/2012/11/12/grand-bargain-betrayal-coming/

So, that's where the fate of farming rests right now, far as I can tell.  If someone has more optimistic news it should be told.

[Chris Malek - Malek Family Stewardship Farm]

Bobby,

 

Imploding might be a proper word for it.  You simply cannot have "growth" when so many people are unemployed, underemployed, and underpaid.  The economic system does not work because so many people are undervalued.  That's really is the crux of the matter.  The remedy, to this point, has been credit, but that can only last so long, as we know.  The next alternative is poverty, as you rightly suggest.

 

The two-party system is to the liking of the ruling elite.  It is easy for them to control.  In the past, when the prevailing parties did not meet the needs of the people, a new party sprang up.  I am not sure why that doesn't work today.  Perhaps, as you also suggest, too many people are baited into thinking the two current parties can really bring change.  We certainly know that that isn't true.

 

The times are certainly interesting.  I keep hearing about this "fiscal cliff".  I don't know what that really means.  It seems that the answer is always more debt.  I don't see how this time will be any different.  I guess until the bond rates start shooting off the charts, we won't see any real "action".

 

Chris