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A comment on The suicide rate for farmers in the U.S. is more than double that of veterans. Parent comment

Re:The suicide rate for farmers in the U.S. is more than dou... by criddell on Wednesday December 06, 2017 @11:23AM (#15862314)
For some farms.

I have relatives that are dairy farmers in Ontario and they seem to be doing ok. There's some kind of collective in place that establishes production quotas and you have to pay for the right to produce. Maybe more commodity products could benefit from this type of planning.

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Re:The suicide rate for farmers in the U.S. is more than dou... by slavik81 on Wednesday December 06, 2017 @12:54PM (#15863189)
It makes Canadian dairy products rather expensive. Helping businesses collude to drive up prices and increase profits really should not be the role of government. Cartels are good for their members, but not for the rest of society.

See also, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-comme...

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Re:The suicide rate for farmers in the U.S. is more than dou... by criddell on Wednesday December 06, 2017 @03:19PM (#15864585)
> Helping businesses collude to drive up prices and increase profits really should not be the role of government.

Well, that's one way to look at it. Another way is to say it stabilizes a strategically important sector and establishes a minimum wage for dairy farmers. I'd rather pay more for milk than have desperate farmers killing themselves at record rates. There's a societal cost to that as well.

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Re:The suicide rate for farmers in the U.S. is more than dou... by nbanks on Wednesday December 06, 2017 @12:35PM (#15862988)
This is also why milk costs 50% more in Canada than in the US. Still, a reliable supply of food reduces the risk of famine which is more important than a purely competitive market.
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