More True Tales From the Heartland
Aug. 7th, 2009 12:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mallorys_cameraJump: Garner, IA → Belmond, IA – Next to Implement Dealer: 20 miles
LEFT out of the parking lot
LEFT onto HWY 69 SOUTH to Belmond…
Arrows to the lot…
Shows at 5pm/7:30pm
Who knows when I’ll find espresso again? Not me. So I eschewed Group Jump this morning, went back to the little coffee house on State street for a grande latte. Chatted with previously cited apple-cheeked proprietress for 15 minutes or so.
The reason why Iowa is so prosperous compared with, say, Minnesota is the huge agricultural subsidies, she informed me.
“But, I mean – Minnesota is an agricultural state too, isn’t it?”
“Oh, not like here. Corn is king here. Corn and soybeans. Southern part of Minnesota they grow some but mostly they’re dairies, vegetable growers – they supply Green Giant. And then in the northern part of the state along the Red River they grow sugar beets.
“Here in Iowa,” she continued, “you have the corporate farmers. They own or rent huge tracts of land. And the government pays them millions not to grow corn. Maybe that made sense when corn was two bucks a bushel but it don’t make sense now. Nobody’s subsidizing me. Nobody’s bailing me out.”
I was curious. “Did you vote for Obama?”
“I did. But now I wish I hadn’t. That bank bailout? And then bailing out GM? What about me? I am one week away from losing everything.”
Been there. Done that.
I realize Obama inherited Dubya Bush’s recovery strategy. (Best summed up in the sentence, They’re too big to fail! For which, read: I don’t want my pals in the finance industry to be poor!) But honest to God, his people are supposed to be original thinkers. Seems to me a far more effective recovery strategy would have been one specifically targeted towards small businesses (who do employ the majority of Americans), making credit or money directly available to them through some intermediary like the SBA. It’s so much more important that small businesses stay in business than that large faceless corporations stay in business. Or do you really want to live in the New Feudalism, where mega-corporations rule across national boundaries?
In all fairness, of course, Obama didn’t cause the financial meltdown – he just caught the ball. Had to run it to the direction that seemed safest. And farm subsidies have been around forever.
Still one of the functions of government is to give the private citizen something to blame everything on. (Works for me!) One reason, I suppose, that it’s really a bad thing when politicians one admires get voted into office.
In other news, I was deeply saddened to learn that John Hughes had died. I was – am – a huge fan. The Molly Ringwold oeuvre in particular is ever close to my heart.
LEFT out of the parking lot
LEFT onto HWY 69 SOUTH to Belmond…
Arrows to the lot…
Shows at 5pm/7:30pm
Who knows when I’ll find espresso again? Not me. So I eschewed Group Jump this morning, went back to the little coffee house on State street for a grande latte. Chatted with previously cited apple-cheeked proprietress for 15 minutes or so.
The reason why Iowa is so prosperous compared with, say, Minnesota is the huge agricultural subsidies, she informed me.
“But, I mean – Minnesota is an agricultural state too, isn’t it?”
“Oh, not like here. Corn is king here. Corn and soybeans. Southern part of Minnesota they grow some but mostly they’re dairies, vegetable growers – they supply Green Giant. And then in the northern part of the state along the Red River they grow sugar beets.
“Here in Iowa,” she continued, “you have the corporate farmers. They own or rent huge tracts of land. And the government pays them millions not to grow corn. Maybe that made sense when corn was two bucks a bushel but it don’t make sense now. Nobody’s subsidizing me. Nobody’s bailing me out.”
I was curious. “Did you vote for Obama?”
“I did. But now I wish I hadn’t. That bank bailout? And then bailing out GM? What about me? I am one week away from losing everything.”
Been there. Done that.
I realize Obama inherited Dubya Bush’s recovery strategy. (Best summed up in the sentence, They’re too big to fail! For which, read: I don’t want my pals in the finance industry to be poor!) But honest to God, his people are supposed to be original thinkers. Seems to me a far more effective recovery strategy would have been one specifically targeted towards small businesses (who do employ the majority of Americans), making credit or money directly available to them through some intermediary like the SBA. It’s so much more important that small businesses stay in business than that large faceless corporations stay in business. Or do you really want to live in the New Feudalism, where mega-corporations rule across national boundaries?
In all fairness, of course, Obama didn’t cause the financial meltdown – he just caught the ball. Had to run it to the direction that seemed safest. And farm subsidies have been around forever.
Still one of the functions of government is to give the private citizen something to blame everything on. (Works for me!) One reason, I suppose, that it’s really a bad thing when politicians one admires get voted into office.
In other news, I was deeply saddened to learn that John Hughes had died. I was – am – a huge fan. The Molly Ringwold oeuvre in particular is ever close to my heart.
