Quote:
Originally Posted by Deerhunter  As a farmer I am also a tax paying, subsidising member of the public. |
We all subsidise ourselves via what we earn in some form or other, it's called 'paying your way' (this may even happen in farming one day).
It's when everyone else subsides you AS WELL that you need to be a bit more grateful for it.
As a farmer,as you put it, you are....
1 - A member of the only type of small business in the UK who still gets his bills part-paid by the UK public (whether that includes your own insignificant 60 millionth of it or not).
2- You are the only type of small business who gets compensated for things that any other line of business would simply have to write off as a loss and either survive it or not. In any other small business, if conditions were such that you were not able to make a profit because things went wrong for you and you were losing more money than you made, you would simply go out of business and have to accept it. If you lost assets in a disaster you would either have private insurance or not and be compensated accordingly (or not). It's that simple....for everyone else.
3 - You are the only small business who is paid by the tax payer NOT to work (i.e. to enjoy the wildlife the govt pay you to encourage on to your fields instead of treating them like a factory). In other words, the less you farm, the less damage you do and hence the more the govt pays you via a nice little environmental 'scheme' as a reward for not violating the place.
So let's summarise....
- Bill's subsidised by the rest of us (on top of yourself, of course)
- Anything that leads to a loss of earnings, whether it's potentially your fault or not, you get compensated for (by the rest of us)
- The less you farm the more you get as a 'reward' (from the rest of us, again) for not screwing the place up.
Nice work if you can get it !!
And even with all this farmers STILL moan more than anyone else I've ever met.
I think it should be compulsory for every first-born male (who usually gets given the 'family farm') to spend several years paying his own way in the harsh world outside his farm boundaries before he takes the farm over; just so that he can see what it's like NOT to be drip fed by the govt. Then they would realise just how heavily supported they are, and so be more appreciative of what a cushy number they have, and more grateful towards those of us who help to pay for it on their behalf.