Considering the average American is 80% corn, I heard that on NPR, 80% of America's calories come from corn, corn muffins, high fructose corn sweetener, corn starch, corn oil, corn fed beef, corn fed hogs, corn fed chickens, etc.

So yeah, let's use our tax dollars to burn corn..........................

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“ The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.”

Adam Smith , The Wealth of Nations 1776

"We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics"
FDR's second Inaugural Address

The thing is that it doesn't just effect corn prices. When the price of corn goes up then farmers start to grow in in place of other crops that they would have grown otherwise. This lowers the supply of those crops and causes them to go up as well.

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"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

yes there is a cascade effect alright, and we are feeling it.

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No individual can plan his own existence in their view.

So the state planners must arrogate to themselves the right to manipulate any sector of the economic system if the good of “society” or the “general welfare” is paramount.

Ipso- if the rights of the individual get in the way, the rights of the individual must be sublimated.

The Road to Serfdom
FA Hayek (interpretation)


Mortgage Backed Security survivor

I've just decided to stuff dollar bills into the gas tank, directly. The dollar isn't good for much else anymore, and it'll probably end up cheaper.

I wonder what kind of mileage I could get.....

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"My opinions may have changed, but not the fact that I am right." - Ashleigh Brilliant(?)
(Voting for None Of The Above, so far...)

LOL

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"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways - Chardonnay in one hand - chocolate in the other - body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming "WOO HOO, What a Ride!"

What do you expect? The US provides something like 40 percent of the world's corn, and we're at the forefront to use some of that for fuel even providing incentives for the go-ahead. Similarly, fuel costs are up and since energy is so closely linked to agriculture your going to have problems when oil is up. So yeah, its a number of things. A food shortage not being one of them, simply that costs go up and they're rationing rice probably to keep costs down because mass stocking up on rice will only make the cost go up even more.

I think if one good thing comes out of this it's a chance to end all those farm subsidies since prices are more than high enough anyway. I know it's not going to happen but it would be a good time for it to.

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"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"