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Strange Bedfellows Fight Ethanol Subsidies

Posted by kdawson on from the no-way-to-energy-self-sufficiency dept.

Reader Actual Reality sends us to Business Week for a tale of the strangest political coalition to be seen in a while — greens, hippies, libertarians, and livestock producers uniting to get ethanol subsidies reduced or killed. The demand for the alternative fuel is driving up corn prices and having big impacts on other parts of the economy. Not many other issues are capable of getting left-leaning economist Paul Krugman and the Cato Institute on the same side.

3 of 552 comments (clear)

  1. Re:How about..... by Timesprout · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    No,apparently killing babies is ok with them both if its done in a carbon neutral manner.

    --
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  2. Re:Libertarian speaking here by DerekLyons · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Because food is cheaper to import than produce locally so all the farms would go out of business. And you don't want to depend on other, potentially unstable, countries for food.

    I don't see anything wrong with using these cheap food sources.

    Of course not - because like most Slashdotters you don't see much beyond the end of your nose, nor think much beyond your next gaming session.
     
     

    If they ever dried up we could always go back to growing our own food.

    Right - all the farms that had vanished and all the machinery that had rusted and all the people who had gotten other jobs can leap back into production overnight. Oh, wait. This is the real world we are talking about, not SimFarm - it takes months to produce most crops.
  3. Re:Whatever happened to the "free market" by Catbeller · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Just had a vision: in the free market nirvana, with no price controls mechanisms, a phone call is made from Food, Inc. to the manager of the Southwest Sector Food Production division of Food, Inc.

    "Hey, Bob, how's it going?"

    "Fine, Mr. Midas, just fine."

    "Say, Bob, do you mind shutting down the lower 48,000 acre quadrant for the year? We think that costs of production with the price increase from our WaterCo division have become too high to justify a corn crop this fiscal year."

    "Heh. Sure, Mr. Midas. Thanks for that stock bonus last year!"

    "No problem, Bob. Now, make sure that corn stays good and dead, huh?"

    Price of corn doubles, and doubles again... when the markets control their own supply, they ALWAYS CUT SUPPLY to maximize profit. No doubt they'll blame government regulation of pesticides or some bullshit. This is exactly how Enron jacked the state of California for 20 billion dollars of free money. And the White House and the Free Marketeers covered for them every step of the way. Truly free markets are a mechanism to loot. This is why we regulate.