U.S. Farm Report 07/20/24

[pete]

The problem with Vance's views on trade is that NAFTA didn't send jobs to Mexico. Those jobs were already leaving for Mexico. The untold story of US manufacturing is that we are manufacturing more than ever, but what people like Vance and the other economic nationalists forget is the lesson of agriculture. We produce more food and agricultural output now than we ever have, yet it is done with far less than 2% of the population. What has happened in agriculture is that human labor has been replaced by capital machinery. The same processes are being done in manufacturing: manufacturing output is increasing while manufacturing employment is declining.

[marklen]

There is so little profit in farming these days that it should be considered a dead business. Young people are not going to go into a dead business and work for nothing and live in poverty.