Why does Europe have all the cool small farming stuff..

Originally Posted by wogglebug

One of the main reasons Europe still has viable small farms is that the politicians there realise that they need votes. It seems that in the USA the polyticks prefer big money from big companies.

In Europe, they realise keeping families on farms, even if not the most profitable way of doing things on a micro-economic scale, does lots of good things. First, it keeps the voters where they can do the politicians the most good. Secondly, it keeps the money the small farmers make out in the community, where the multiplier effect is high. The same Euro may circulate through many hands, buying many goods and services, before it eventually gets banked against future need. Third, it keeps all those people out in rural areas, including and financed by the farmers, off the welfare rolls. This is one of the big things USAmericans don't realise about European welfare states. It works because the money is out in the community, circulating, and taxable many times. It also works because the farmers create a lot of what they need to live without having to pay for it, and the small communities in which they live also benefit through mutual barter and low-cost local markets, all of it non-taxable.

As I said, all this is unimaginable in the USA. In particular, it is unimaginable to US politicians, and anathema to their big-business masters. It's been said that the USA has the best politicians money can buy. That's probably true, but it's not setting the bar very high.

Some of the European pollies aren't great either, but at their worst they've been bought retail rather than wholesale. At their best, the only thing that might buy them is votes, and even then some of them will stand against the masses on a matter of principle, knowing it means their ouster at the next elections.

So, indirectly, we return to my original point. Europe has small farms because, in the big picture, that's better business than the small picture quarter-by-quarter bottom line that managers-on-a-bonus have managed to negotiate, and then with which they have managed to infect the political and even the judiciary and military organisations.