A new Homestead Act?

[pecksniff]

What to do with all these new immigrants? Well, most of them were farmers in the old country -- perhaps they could be farmers here. The federal government could buy up arable land from agribiz corporations and distribute it cheap in family-sized smallholdings. It's been done before.

 

[KeithD]

I think there are enough jobs going begging in existing agriculture to absorb most of them.

Trump needs workers for his vineyards in central Virginia.

 

[bellisarius]

What to do with all these new immigrants? Well, most of them were farmers in the old country -- perhaps they could be farmers here. The federal government could buy up arable land from agribiz corporations and distribute it cheap in family-sized smallholdings. It's been done before.

The modern version of 'forty acres and a mule' huh? *chuckle*

What an absolutely insane idea.

Let's make a list;

1. Is this land going to come with all of the modern equipment that will be required to farm the land? If so, who's going to pay for it?

2. You assume they're farmers, they aren't. Oh, some of them make work the land but they have NO experience in land ownership or management. If they owned land, they wouldn't be here.

3. The farmers of the US not only feed us, they feed a great deal of the rest of the world. I am NOT a fan of agribiz, but setting up thousands of subsistence farmers condemns the US to food shortages and a good portion of the rest of the world to starvation.

I find it interesting that you would prioritize illegal aliens above your fellow citizens. I mean if you're serious about fucking up the worlds food supply at least let our own have a crack at it.

 

[rae121452]

do you remember how it worked out before?

 

[pecksniff]

do you remember how it worked out before?

The homesteaders kept their farms for a few generations, some of them losing it to banks during depressions -- then, most of the survivors sold their land to suburban developers or agribiz, using the money to start businesses or send their kids to college. In the end, it was a path into a non-agrarian middle class.

 

[bellisarius]

The homesteaders kept their farms for a few generations, some of them losing it to banks during depressions -- then, most of the survivors sold their land to suburban developers or agribiz, using the money to start businesses or send their kids to college.

So, the American taxpayer should foot the bill for these criminals to prosper all the while fucking up the worlds food supply.................brilliant.

 

[pecksniff]

So, the American taxpayer should foot the bill for these criminals to prosper all the while fucking up the worlds food supply.................brilliant.

"Criminals"? Not a fair description of immigrants, legal or illegal.

 

[KeithD]

The homesteaders kept their farms for a few generations, some of them losing it to banks during depressions -- then, most of the survivors sold their land to suburban developers or agribiz, using the money to start businesses or send their kids to college. In the end, it was a path into a non-agrarian middle class.

My grandmother went to Colorado to homestead after her husband died in the Spanish flu epidemic and they lost their insurance company business (paying out on other deaths). Going in with two sons she got three parcels and they expanded that into a large dude ranch that's still in the family.

 

[rae121452]

The homesteaders kept their farms for a few generations, some of them losing it to banks during depressions -- then, most of the survivors sold their land to suburban developers or agribiz, using the money to start businesses or send their kids to college. In the end, it was a path into a non-agrarian middle class.

tell that to all of the freed blacks who were promised 40 acres and a mule.

 

[BluesDriver66]

What most people fail to recognize we are in transition just like humans were when we went from hunter gatherers to an agricultural city states. AI and robotics are taking jobs that humans used to do. And quite frankly if a machine can do your job a human shouldn't be doing it anyway.

We fast approaching a world where there is a enough food, housing, health care, and education for everybody but not enough manual labor jobs. Current mindset is the worst thing in world is poor people get something for free and suffering is somehow noble. Every morsel of food consumed should be toiled for (unless you come from a rich family) and receiving anything for free is immoral.

Nobody claims you are lazy or immoral if you don't personally hunt down and kill everything you eat. We have to get to the point where we understand if you're not pulling a plow, digging in a coal mine, or somehow making rich people even richer by slaving away in some factory somewhere you don't deserve to eat.

 

[Kim_vegas]

So, the American taxpayer should foot the bill for these criminals to prosper all the while fucking up the worlds food supply.................brilliant.

Humans have sold humans, big and small !
Humans have tortured Humans , big and small !
Humans have Nuked Humans , big and small !
In this free world, I don't know who's a criminal and who's a martyr anymore ..

 

[pecksniff]

tell that to all of the freed blacks who were promised 40 acres and a mule.

That's a myth based on something General Sherman general tried at some point, a policy almost immediately reversed by higher-ups. It was never a promise made by the government or the Republicans or anybody else. If it had been done, it would have led to a black independent yeomanry, and, eventually, a substantial black middle class. There's no reason the homesteaded freedmen could not have made a go of it -- they had been farming all their lives, they did not need an overseer to tell them when to plough and when to harvest.

 

[bellisarius]

Humans have sold humans, big and small !
Humans have tortured Humans , big and small !
Humans have Nuked Humans , big and small !
In this free world, I don't know who's a criminal and who's a martyr anymore ..

Quit showing your ass.

 

[pecksniff]

We have to get to the point where we understand if you're not pulling a plow, digging in a coal mine, or somehow making rich people even richer by slaving away in some factory somewhere you don't deserve to eat.

Actually, I think we're at that point now.

 

[pecksniff]

Of course, if such a thing were done -- then red counties all over America would be colonized with Latinos and Asians. They would be our new rural-agrarian class. Can the present white inhabitants of those counties endure the proximity of new Catholic churches, mosques and Buddhist temples?