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Re:We can do better than “same, but electric” by brimble on Tuesday March 29, 2022 @02:20PM (#30846432)
Yes, national security is a good reason to subsidize food production. I might agree with keeping all those bridges open, on those grounds—though I suspect overall economic efficiency could be improved by removing some fraction of them, without harming rates of food production, and that there's effectively some level of unproductive free-riding going on.

I just object to framing things like urbanites must subsidize rural living because "that's where their food comes from". Sure, of course... but that's why there's a food market. We're not propitiating the farm-gods to shower food upon us, but, instead, paying for food. Subsidies might make sense for several other reasons, but, as someone who spend much of his childhood in the country and sometimes living on small farms, the defensive "but you owe us" attitudes from some people when this topic comes up seem downright bizarre.

Re:We can do better than “same, but electric” by spaethnl on Tuesday March 29, 2022 @06:30PM (#30849190)
I think it would be great if that subsidization came in the form a universal FoodStamps only spendable on nationally produced strategic goods.

This would make subsidization more transparent to the general public, while also enabling free-market competition and innovation rather than free-money stagnation.