As rice mountain shrinks, Thailand risks amassing one for rubber

[robblok]

Its a big scam all over the world.. but you think your special as a farmer.. your just as important as anyone.. and that is not important. I don't understand why other hardworking people should pay tax for farmers that just can't change their habits and become profitable.

If you can't do your job or your job is not profitable.. change.. find something else. Then there is less production and people are forced to pay the remaining farmers more.. Then it becomes interesting to farm again.. and they will overproduce and prices drop again. Pure economics.. Its not like there are no jobs in Thailand.. real low unemployment.

Its the same for anything but farmers are always DEMANDING (not asking like normal people) for compensation this and complaining. Farmers in all countries are often militant just look at France.

I am against subsidies anywhere.. unless it is to change.. not to keep something that is not viable alive. That is communist style it does not work. If my work becomes obsolete.. I will moan but nobody will help me.. (as it should) but farmers.. the world over think they are special.. maybe they are "special" like Corkey because they think the laws of economics don't apply to them.

I am not a farmer per se, i am retired, i used to work in the British and German industry and could see first hand that a lot of subsidization went on there as well, whether it was the aircraft industry,weapons industry or automobile industry, it made sense as long as it wasn't overdone, you need to retain the skills acquired over many years of practice when a troublesome time is met,you can't let an industry go under and then start over quickly again when things are better,you lose the know how. Britain is an example, the manufacturing industry was swept away in the Thatcher era and the UK produces very little now, all the parts for Rolls Royce for instance are made in Germany,they are merely put together in the UK. Farming,from what i have observed, my wife owns 220 Rai of rice fields, is a skilled occupation,you don't just throw the seed down and let it grow,there is water management fertilizer and pest control, drying,etc. Lose the farmers and you lose the land as well as the experience,very dangerous to have housing estates and factories on once arable land and have to rely on foreign countries for basic food stuff ( like the UK now ) I am not an evangelist for subsidies but i can appreciate the farmers point of view, i think that the Russians now regret ignoring their food manufacturing.

Good point.. in those cases... though i seen how we tried to keep an aircraft industry in Holland and how much it cost the government.. should have dumped it far earlier.

But those are highly skilled jobs.. farming.. at least not the farmers we are talking about are not high skilled at all. They are also not effective at what they do. To subsidize there should be at least some kind of chance for a better future. But in this case there is absolutely no future unless they change.. and the giving of money did not accomplish that.

I have nothing against farmers per se.. I have something against wasting money on things that will never get efficient again. I used to have a sideline.. building and installing PC computers (next to my main job for fun and a bit of extra cash). We all know what happened to the PC market... I would not have found it prudent of the government to subsidize the people working there as it would only get worse.. same for small scale farmers in Thailand.

The farming subsidies in Europe.. crazy been against it all my life.. but its the reason for France to stay in the EU. I see your logic in your points.. however those don't apply here. As the small farmers are not a skilled workforce and chance for a better future is nill.