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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bernard Levy who wrote (119138)	12/22/2000 6:12:25 PM
From: Ish	Respond to of 769670

<<A few posts back PartyTime was attributing the loss of family farms to the big bad corporate farms. The more likely reason for this problem is the estate tax, since it is unbelievably difficult to compete if your capital is confiscated.>> Cost me $157k to keep my farm that's been in the family since Presidents Polk and Taylor granted it to my family.

To: Bernard Levy who wrote (119138)	12/22/2000 6:35:01 PM
From: Sedohr Nod	Respond to of 769670

The estate tax should go for a lot of valid reasons. But passing on small farms involves many problems. One is that it takes a certain type of individual to stay the course farming and each new generation of potential farmers have a "birds-eye" view of how tough it can be. Many farmers can not afford to bring in their children in the family business on a paying basis and very few new farmers can swing the capitalization required to start from scratch. $1.80 a bushel corn makes it pretty easy to give in to good offers from land developers. Agricultural policies may be one of the more tricker jobs the legislatures have to try to muddle through. New markets would be preferable to farm subsidies. The conservative in me wants the government to take a very limited role in price supports. But I can see a day coming when we will all pay for the decline in small farms.