The Problems with Farm Subsidies :: Economy

The Problems with Farm Subsidies Subsidies are payments, economic concessions, or privileges granted bythe governance to favor businesses or consumers. In the 1930s, subsidieswere designed to favor agriculture. nates Steinbeck expressed his dislike ofthe farm subsidy system of the United States in his book, The Grapes ofWrath. In that book, the government gave money to farms so that they wouldgrow and sell a certain amount of crops. As a result, Steinbeck argued,many people rapacious unnecessarily. Steinbeck examined farm subsidies from apersonal level, showing how they hurt the common man. Subsidies exact avariety of other line of works, both on the micro and macro level, that shouldnot be ignored. Despite their benefits, farm subsidies are an inefficientand nonadaptive part of our economic system. The conundrums of the American farmer arose in the twenties, and variousmethods were introduced to alleviate solve them. The United States stilldisagrees on how to solve t he continuing problem of agriculturaloverproduction. In 1916, the number of people living on farms was at itsmaximum at 32,530,000. Most of these farms were relatively small (Reische51). Technological advances in the 1920s brought a variety of effects. Theuse of machinery increased productivity while cut down the need for as manyfarm fag outers. The industrial boom of the 1920s drew many workers off thefarm and into the cities. Machinery, while increasing productivity,was in truth expensive. Demand for victuals, though, stayed relativelyconstant (Long 85). As a result of this, fodder prices went down. The smallfarmer was no longer able to compete, lacking the with child(p) to buy productivemachinery. Small farms lost their practicality, and many farmers wereforced to unite to compete. Fewer, larger farms resulted (Reische 51).During the Depression, unemployment grew while income shrank. An extendeddrought had aggravated the farm problem during the 1930s (Reische 52).Congress, to counter this, passed price support legislation to assure aprofit to the farmers. The Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of1936 allowed the government to limit acreage use for certain soil-depletingcrops. The Agricultural Marketing musical arrangement Act of 1937 allowed thegovernment to set the minimum price and amount exchange of a good at the market.The Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, farmers were given price supportsfor not growing crops. These allowed farmers to mechanize, which wasnecessary because of the scarcity of farm labor during World War II(Reische 52). During World War II, demand for food increased, and farmersenjoyed a period of general prosperity (Reische 52).