Best job for part time farmer.

20silkcut wrote: »

In the history of mankind no country or society has ever been worse off in a free trade scenario There would be winners and losers. But the benefits always outweigh the losses. To say output would drop is wrong in fact the opposite would happen. In a free enterprise free trade world the surplus ceilings would be much higher. You would have to go a lot further to reach an overproduction scenario like we saw in powder milk last year. Add in the potential customer base of 7+ billion whose lives would be gradually improving who would have more money to spend in an economically free world. Obviously the beef industry would be decimated. That would be the loss. There would be a definite drop in output there.
There would have to be a major adjustment in Irish agriculture but all our advantages would be still there. Some farms would just convert to dairying. Some would be involved in dairy support industries like forage production contracting or heifer rearing. Maybe we would finally get a proper contracting industry rather than the tough industry it is at the moment. You would have a lot less farmers doing a bit of contracting on the side giving dedicated contractors a fighting chance. Some farms would probably be planted. In a world of no subsidies the forestry premiums would be a no brainier. But there would be a hell of a lot more wealth and opportunity in Irish agriculture for those who want to work. There would also be more scope for lower taxes in a world of no subsidies.
But it is all pure fantasy. There will probably never be such a scenario in our lifetimes. Absolute free trade with hands off government has only ever occurred in isolated pockets around the globe. The chances of it ever becoming a global reality is nil. But it is the reason why most things are the way they are. I heard a report the other day about the 10 or 20 richest men in the world having the same wealth as the bottom 5 billion . The media nearly paint it as those men have robbed that wealth off those people. But they didn't they probably earned it through private enterprise or inherited it or whatever. Unless or until any of them are jailed or prosecuted for theft we have to assume that. But those bottom five billion are poor because of their corrupt governments and bad economic policies which always have protectionism or socialism or whatever "ism" at their heart.
This country gave 4 and a half decades paralysed by protectionism until it was abandoned in the mid 60's and life in this country is a lot better now than it was then.
Media spin such as that about the rich men robbing the poor feed into our belief that we will lose our wealth if the poor become wealthy as if there is a finite amount of wealth in the world and we must hold and protect ours therefore we don't want trade with these economies this is the Donald trump syndrome and it is absolute bull ****.
Just look at what liberalised trade with China has done for us. Milk quotas lifted after 30 years new processing plants built large scale expansion in dairying to supply china. When you buy stuff off the poor and improve their lives it will come back to you.

20silkcut wrote: »

No but every country in the world can develop a comparative advantage vis a vis other countries through specialisation. It's much cheaper produce milk in the EU than Saudi Arabia .

yosemitesam1 wrote: »

Why wouldn't they expand both beef and dairy? They already have the land and potential to do both.