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The most natural reading of this is "Sophisticated entrepreneurs attempt to increase revenue by diversifying into a new line of business requiring capital impro

The most natural reading of this is "Sophisticated entrepreneurs attempt to increase revenue by diversifying into a new line of business requiring capital improvements financed by readily available debt.", unless one has the misapprehension that farmers are, as a class, stupid.

yequalsx 9y ago
It's not binary. There's a whole range types of people, situations and forces at play. Not all are sophisticated, not all are dumb and probably are reacting to emotional forces that we aren't aware of. I frequently read stories on this site about how it's dumb to have your whole business dependent upon Facebook. Maybe depending entirely on Costco is equally a bad idea. Perhaps more so since there are massive loans involved. EDIT: From the article: "Bringing the boys back to the farm is huge for me," Mueller says. "I'm not a big enough farmer to where another family could farm and do corn and soybeans and survive. This way they can." At least in this one case there are non-sophisticated financial forces at play. Patio11's comment is not apt.
- austenallred 9y ago
  > At least in this one case there are non-sophisticated financial forces at play. I'm not convinced that's a fair assumption. Everyone has reasons they'd like to make more money and some vague idea of what they'd do if they were more wealthy. Acknowledging that you want your business to be successful because x doesn't necessarily indicate that a decision making process is irrational or unsophisticated.
  - yequalsx 9y ago
    I'd say that a major part in his deciding to take $6 million in loans and signing an exclusive contract with Costco has to do with emotion and not purely financial reasons. It may be a good decision but at least part of the decision making was not for sophisticated financial reasons.
    - austenallred 9y ago
      I think it's silly to assume that's the case. You could very well be right, but there's no way to make that anything more than an assumption based on the article.
      - yequalsx 9y ago
        Well the man in the article talked about how important it was for him to bring his boys home. That is provide an environment where he sees them at home with a future in farming. It's what he said. Emotion is a huge part of business decisions for most people. It's rare for someone to disassociate their emotions from the transaction. This is well known.
horsecaptin 9y ago
Many farmers like to paint themselves as unsophisticated simpletons. And the trick works more often than it doesn't. In turn, many people in cities think of themselves as better than people in the country. Why, they moved from the country to the city in search of better opportunities and found them! So, they must be better!
johnchristopher 9y ago
It's all fun and games in honour of our benevolent ultra liberal gods but the river gets red once those debt merchants start telling farmers to buy more equipement with more debt and higher interests to make up for last year's loss they somehow couldn't forecast. Then they get the farm and the land and can get low paid worker with no benefits or robots on it.

yequalsx 9y ago

It's not binary. There's a whole range types of people, situations and forces at play. Not all are sophisticated, not all are dumb and probably are reacting to emotional forces that we aren't aware of. I frequently read stories on this site about how it's dumb to have your whole business dependent upon Facebook. Maybe depending entirely on Costco is equally a bad idea. Perhaps more so since there are massive loans involved. EDIT: From the article: "Bringing the boys back to the farm is huge for me," Mueller says. "I'm not a big enough farmer to where another family could farm and do corn and soybeans and survive. This way they can." At least in this one case there are non-sophisticated financial forces at play. Patio11's comment is not apt.

austenallred 9y ago
> At least in this one case there are non-sophisticated financial forces at play. I'm not convinced that's a fair assumption. Everyone has reasons they'd like to make more money and some vague idea of what they'd do if they were more wealthy. Acknowledging that you want your business to be successful because x doesn't necessarily indicate that a decision making process is irrational or unsophisticated.
- yequalsx 9y ago
  I'd say that a major part in his deciding to take $6 million in loans and signing an exclusive contract with Costco has to do with emotion and not purely financial reasons. It may be a good decision but at least part of the decision making was not for sophisticated financial reasons.
  - austenallred 9y ago
    I think it's silly to assume that's the case. You could very well be right, but there's no way to make that anything more than an assumption based on the article.
    - yequalsx 9y ago
      Well the man in the article talked about how important it was for him to bring his boys home. That is provide an environment where he sees them at home with a future in farming. It's what he said. Emotion is a huge part of business decisions for most people. It's rare for someone to disassociate their emotions from the transaction. This is well known.

horsecaptin 9y ago

Many farmers like to paint themselves as unsophisticated simpletons. And the trick works more often than it doesn't. In turn, many people in cities think of themselves as better than people in the country. Why, they moved from the country to the city in search of better opportunities and found them! So, they must be better!

johnchristopher 9y ago

It's all fun and games in honour of our benevolent ultra liberal gods but the river gets red once those debt merchants start telling farmers to buy more equipement with more debt and higher interests to make up for last year's loss they somehow couldn't forecast. Then they get the farm and the land and can get low paid worker with no benefits or robots on it.