If a John Deere salesman knocked on that screen door 80 years ago and said, "Mr. Farmer I have something that will make your life easier. The only drawback is when it breaks down, you can't buy parts, can't see repair documatation, and only pricy factory workers whom live far away will be able to repair the machine at set rates.

The farmer would have slammed the door, and fed his horses.

To be fair, if you made the pitch that way to farmer today they would as well - those points are all iffy.

mostly, though, the nature of labor has completely and utterly changed in 80 years and comparing the two is like apples and oranges.

> those points are all iffy.

for tractors generally, maybe, but have read many things specifically about john deere being very DRM/anti repair, and a quick google seems to highlight that there are court battles being fought over exactly this right now.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-03-05/farmers-f...

And yet... Deere still gets bought. So clearly someone isn't pointing out something they should be.

Or the comparison is flawed, farmers aren't dumb and it makes economic sense to buy the Deere?

"Farmer" is an interesting word these days. Think giant corp running 1 million acres across 200 sites. And think of "tractor" as a fleet of combines that cost $500K each and are shared across all 200 sites.

The picture of a hard-working solo farmer repairing his only tractor out in the barn is becoming a rare thing. When you say "farmer" today, it is unclear if you mean the multi-billion dollar multi-national, the "manager" for this 400-acre parcel, or the lady next to the field operating the drone or mostly-autonomous equipment. Or perhaps you meant the latest breed--that fellow who greases the conveyor belt in the metal building in the middle of town where they do the vertical farming with the fancy lights and watering systems. No tractors or even dirt involved.