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If you are going to run a farm successfully you need to take personal responsibility for everything that does or doesn't happen on your farm and that definitely
by leroy_masochist 7y ago
If you are going to run a farm successfully you need to take personal responsibility for everything that does or doesn't happen on your farm and that definitely applies to the paperwork you sign on your farm's behalf.
Furthermore, if you're in the commodity grain business you sign a lot of paperwork. You sign it for your hedging contracts, for your asset financing, for your farm insurance which often has a lot of detailed terms, etc. The idea that the farmers affected by the general issue of tractor software are neophytes when it comes to contracts strikes me as a misleading one.
- EliRivers 7y agoSo why did they do it? Do they have no choice? Do Deere and chums have these people over a barrel? Is this some kind of captive market situation, in which farmers know they're being fucked over but have no choice and a union too weak to protect them?
- leroy_masochist 7y agoThey consciously choose to buy the tractors that has software with TOS because they perform much, much better for the grain harvesting use case. FWIW, there's undoubtedly some level of "the Deere salesman who was captain of my high school wrestling team when I was a sophomore on JV will be extra nice to me at the Elks Club if I buy the deluxe model" type dynamic going on in a lot of cases. Human factors exist in every rural community, and I'm sure many an unnecessarily fancy tractor has been sold over the years.
- kazagistar 7y agoEasy way to tell if there is a gross power imbalance: do both parties have leverage to negotiate and modify the contract? Personally, I dislike when contracts function as unilateral laws issued by the powerful to further exploit those st a disadvantage.