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From: gjk@talcott.UUCP (Greg Kuperberg)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: food for thought
Message-ID: <310@talcott.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 2-Mar-85 10:51:57 EST
Article-I.D.: talcott.310
Posted: Sat Mar  2 10:51:57 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 5-Mar-85 02:26:41 EST
References: <812@oliven.UUCP>
Organization: Harvard
Lines: 34

>It should be obvious that the American system combining many farmers
>with government technical assistance and price supports has been the most
>productive in the world.  The Agricultural Adjustment Act was passed in 1933
>to provide stability to the agricultural market which tends to suffer
>from the "cobweb effect" in which prices oscillate wildly due to a
>relatively inelastic demand, and an uncertain supply.  
>Unfortunately the Reagan administration is about to dismantle this system
>and pave the way for large corporations to exercise the same control over
>farming that they now exercise over other industries.  
>The ultimate effects will be the same as other industries- a few oligopolies
>will control the market, increase prices and restrict supply.
>Once again, the free market leads to its own dissolution.....
>But do not forget the role of government policy in making American
>agriculture the most productive in the world!
>         tim  sevener  whuxl!orb

I'm confused...Which companies comprised your "oligopoly" before the
Adjustment Act?  And I don't know about this inevitable trend of the free
market.  Where is this trend in the software industry?  The airline
industry (since its deregulation)?   Even when there are not so many
companies involved, I don't see how you can say there is little
competition; Coke and Pepsi seem to be in heavy competition to me! I don't
know about your restricted supply either; the supply of cars, for example,
doesn't seem restricted in the slightest.  And how could the auto companies
be an oligopoly when one of them was about to go bankrupt?  Finally, which
government policy are you referring to in your last sentence?  Price
fixing?  Paying the farmers not to grow food?  The monopoly on, for
example, the hops market? I think that John Deere had more of a role
in increasing productivity than did Uncle Sam.
---
			Greg Kuperberg
		     harvard!talcott!gjk

"2*x^5-10*x+5=0 is not solvable by radicals." -Evariste Galois.