…and the Conservative government’s response to one of them (but they won’t dare touch the other). Publius gets his hands dirty:
…
Back in my undergraduates days I came across an article on the CWB. It was oddly fascinating. I looked upon it as some bizarre aberration, a historical quirk as not yet remedied. In modern day Canada a farmer could go to jail for selling wheat. To my mind it was absurd enough to go to jail for selling marijuana, but wheat? I had images of men in John Deere caps, half-hidden by the shadows of Regina’s back alleys, furtively glancing and quickly whispering: Durum?
From there I was brought into contact with the upside down world of supply management. Having been raised on the notion that food should be cheap, so that the poor would not go wanting, I found myself confronted with a government conspiracy to aide and abet the looting of the ordinary consumer. Here were actual Robber Barons, not the wrongly maligned the industrial titans of Gilded Age America. If there was one single event that drove home to me the inherent madness of statism, supply management was it…
Ya have to love how the do-gooder progressives, liberals & dippers are all for enforcing high food costs on the poorest of Canadians . . because we know how much they really care.
liberals & dippers are all for enforcing high food costs on the poorest of Canadians . .
~Fred
If there weren’t enough poor people in Canada the socialists would have to import them from 3rd world toilets just to have a chance at power,…oh…wait…
“I found myself confronted with a government conspiracy to aide and abet the looting of the ordinary consumer…If there was one single event that drove home to me the inherent madness of statism, supply management was it…”
Posted by Mark at November 3, 2011 3:52 PM
Pretty much it.
SM (now that’s a happy coincidence)is one of those sacred cows – along with health care, aboriginal affairs, and bilingualism/multiculturalism – that no government will touch.
If and when it is ever brought down, it will be by external trade forces.
Hey single Mom,
Buy some milk, the Ferrari payment is coming up.
The supply management lobby is in the midst of losing an important ally – those who favour maintaining the CWB monopsony – as in the next few years their opposition will evaporate much opposition to the abolishment of the crow rate has disappeared.
Thus the SM lobby will be isolated and we can expect a rise in consumer lobbys to remove SMS power to control production of those commodities under their domain. But the ultimate end for SM will happen when the GATT ends it simultaneously along with the cap and the us farm bill – likely within the next five years. The cap and farm bill are unsustainable entitlements and those juristictions will not allow sm to remain in place.
Not only the CWB. This is one of the few countries on the planet where you can go to jail for selling milk or eggs or cigarettes or alcohol or grain and probably many more things that elude me at the moment. Free enterprise does not fill goverment coffers or employ tens of thousands beurocrats. Most milk quotas are worth far more than the farms they pertain to. Land of the free. Sounds good but that was long long ago.
Tried riding a bicycle without a helmet lately ?
I think Alberta is down to about 50 mostly millionaire turkey farmers. Most dairy farmers are millionaires. We are selling overpriced food to the poor to subsidize millionaires. It bothers me. It doesn’t seem to bother the Reds.
The Idiots have lived with Supply Management for so long they don’t believe that competitive pricing exists…
Gal of 2% milk in Arizona $1.82…(>5.00 in Sask)
Baccardi Rum $18.79 for 1.75 liter (>$57 in Sask)
Shame on the Socialist for demanding Supply Side Management & screwing the poor…
Yes it is the Socialist that screw the poor by demonism of the competitive market.
What we need is price controls along with the supply management. I’m sure that’d work out pretty well.
Ending the CWB is a start but what I’m waiting for is the end of the medical monopsony.
Takes the milk right out of the baby’s mouth.
I am certain you all might have a wonderful gulp of melomine tainted milk for a bed time drink. Maybe a dose of RBST in the glasss for good measure. ‘Most dairy farmers are millionaires’; what measurement do you use to justify that statement? SM sectors provide safe food to Cdn’s produced by Canadian farmers who abide by ever heightened food safety standards. Cdn’s pay amongst the lowest cost of food items in the world when compared to gross income; including SM foodstuffs.
@ farmerboy
http://www.farmsincanada.ca/quota_history.html
Look at the quota prices and then enlighten us with your rebuttal. No one is talking about giving up quality control. Just the screw the consumer monopoly.
‘Most dairy farmers are millionaires’; what measurement do you use to justify that statement?
Because the average dairy farmer – 100 cows – owns about $3 million worth of air – called quota. Plus their cattle and farms.
Here are better numbers:
http://www.fcpp.org/publication.php/38
As long as our tax dollars prop up our farmers who needs a wheat board???????
What we need is price controls along with the supply management. I’m sure that’d work out pretty well.
Posted by: james at November 3, 2011 10:05 PM
Supply Management is price control.
I am certain you all might have a wonderful gulp of melomine tainted milk for a bed time drink. Maybe a dose of RBST in the glasss for good measure. ‘Most dairy farmers are millionaires’; what measurement do you use to justify that statement? SM sectors provide safe food to Cdn’s produced by Canadian farmers who abide by ever heightened food safety standards. Cdn’s pay amongst the lowest cost of food items in the world when compared to gross income; including SM foodstuffs.
Posted by: farmerboy at November 3, 2011 11:44 PM
Ah yes, the old ‘its all about food safety’ argument. If that’s all you’ve got in your defence of S-M arsenal, best not to start shootin’.
312,000,000 Yanks manage to get melamine-free dairy products without supply management.
As a former CDN I was amazed to see many well developed western state roads south of the Intl. border. I guess it is one of those tools used to control commerce between western Canadians and their American brothers!
@ S.Becker
Not really a fair comparison when you consider that we are only 34 million people and have the 2nd largest country in the world. The priority for roads here is primarily in urban areas and money is only shelled out grudgingly at election time to win a few votes. The huge gasoline taxes we pay go into general revenue (slush funds)and even many of our major highways (west of Ontario)are only 2 lane with the odd passing lane thrown in to stop the driver from going into a coma. We do invest in heavy duty shock absorbers and our unemployment rate is still too low for shovel ready jobs, so you can see the disadvantage we face. Everything in this country moves on wheels,… just a little slower. Okay…..a lot slower.
174.00 an acre payout for crop insurance x 5000 acres(average grain farm)= ??? you do the math. That’s why rural sask votes tory. A 14 million dollar highway to Leader Sask?? But the rest of us are greedy. Figure that.