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> like Switzerland, where 55% of farmer income comes from the state Paying half of farmer's wages to make small scale farming more tenable and accessible is no

> like Switzerland, where 55% of farmer income comes from the state Paying half of farmer's wages to make small scale farming more tenable and accessible is not digging holes and filling them again. In New England, there are lots of hobby farmers who would love to do it full time but cannot support themselves + a few employees to scale it into a full time thing. This might not create farmers from scratch where there are none, but it could make New England farmers + farms more like the Swiss: Small scale but still viable, distributed, and well, subsidized.

meri_dian 9y ago
So you're digging 55% of a hole. In order to subsidize someone's hobby.
- simonsarris 9y ago
  In the same way that a startup incubator subsidizes hobbies, yeah.
  - meri_dian 9y ago
    Startup incubators provide private investment with the hope of future return that covers their initial investment. That is a sustainable business model. Continuous subsidy - using public funds - of an activity that will not generate profit and overall return is not sustainable.
    - s73ver_ 9y ago
      It's only sustainable if you can pick winners.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
- sshumaker 9y ago
  You’re missing the point. This article is proposing an alternative to UBI, where you are just giving no strings $$$ handouts to all citizens. Clearly basic jobs won’t be as efficient at producing e.g. agricultural products as the free market. But that’s not the goal with UBI or UBJ - it’s to deal with societal inequality in a world where increasingly most jobs are eliminated and those who control capital (the robots) have 100% of the wealth and everyone else is starving. That is the world many feel we are heading towards. There is a good track record of government jobs programs during times of severe unemployment, e.g. the Great Depression: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_Conservation_Corps https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_Conservation_Corps One advantage UBJ over UBI has is that it is something you can transition into; it doesn’t require a societal level disruption to put into practice.
- geezerjay 9y ago
  > So you're digging 55% of a hole. No, you're subsidizinng agricultural production to preserve your production capacity or else when the next war breaks out your country is unable to feed itself once your safe imports from south america and africa aren't safe anymore.
JumpCrisscross 9y ago
> Paying half of farmer's wages to make small scale farming more tenable and accessible is not digging holes and filling them again It's paying them to cast a specific ballot. Farmers are politically powerful in most cantons.

meri_dian 9y ago

So you're digging 55% of a hole. In order to subsidize someone's hobby.

simonsarris 9y ago
In the same way that a startup incubator subsidizes hobbies, yeah.
- meri_dian 9y ago
  Startup incubators provide private investment with the hope of future return that covers their initial investment. That is a sustainable business model. Continuous subsidy - using public funds - of an activity that will not generate profit and overall return is not sustainable.
  - s73ver_ 9y ago
    It's only sustainable if you can pick winners.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
sshumaker 9y ago
You’re missing the point. This article is proposing an alternative to UBI, where you are just giving no strings $$$ handouts to all citizens. Clearly basic jobs won’t be as efficient at producing e.g. agricultural products as the free market. But that’s not the goal with UBI or UBJ - it’s to deal with societal inequality in a world where increasingly most jobs are eliminated and those who control capital (the robots) have 100% of the wealth and everyone else is starving. That is the world many feel we are heading towards. There is a good track record of government jobs programs during times of severe unemployment, e.g. the Great Depression: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_Conservation_Corps https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_Conservation_Corps One advantage UBJ over UBI has is that it is something you can transition into; it doesn’t require a societal level disruption to put into practice.
geezerjay 9y ago
> So you're digging 55% of a hole. No, you're subsidizinng agricultural production to preserve your production capacity or else when the next war breaks out your country is unable to feed itself once your safe imports from south america and africa aren't safe anymore.

JumpCrisscross 9y ago

> Paying half of farmer's wages to make small scale farming more tenable and accessible is not digging holes and filling them again It's paying them to cast a specific ballot. Farmers are politically powerful in most cantons.