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Comment by eddieplan9 | Hacker News Reader

> This is due to less-expensive pig-feed prices and larger farms, but it's also because of loose business and environmental regulations, especially in red states, which have made the U.S. an increasingly attractive place for foreign companies to offshore costly and harmful business practices.

Come on. Chinese government does not give a shit about "offshore costly and harmful business practices". The price of pork in China is 3 times of that in the US not because the Chinese government has some stringent environmental protection scheme regarding hog farms. It's because corn is extremely cheap in the US. And yes, China is now also importing cheap corn to raise hogs domestically: https://www.agriculture.com/markets/newswire/china-buys-up-t...

And if you read Chinese: http://finance.sina.com.cn/chanjing/cyxw/2016-04-07/doc-ifxr...

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Isn't it surreal that the people who yell and scream about the government regulation and interference are the same ones with their hands out looking for government money to subsidize the animal feed they use? Is it cognitive dissonance? Or are they that delusional they cannot see the connection? These people will occasionally feign righteousness over government regulation and spending unless its spending in their district for their stuff.

> Isn't it surreal that the people who yell and scream about the government regulation and interference are the same ones with their hands out looking for government money to subsidize the animal feed they use?

It probably is a facet of, or closely related to the Fundamental Attribution Error: If I'm benefitting, it's because I deserve it to balance-out unfairness out there, when some other moocher out there gets a hand, it is a waste of money and a symptom of the bureaucratic nanny-state.

Exhibit 1: "I've been on food stamps and welfare. Anybody help me out? No."[1]

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTwpBLzxe4U

People want government to do its job properly and to not overreach that. It's no more surreal than people here wanting net neutrality enforced through government regulation while blacking out their sites to protest SOPA.

I don't know, but I have noticed that among the Republican types I have in my circle of friends, a surprisingly large number of them work for a government either directly or indirectly. Same thoughts about cognitive dissonance.

us control on corn, means feeding stock is cheaper in the us too, somebody may think its stupid to subsidize corn, but the truth be told is that the us control the world not because the army or the us dollar, its because the food.

Mexico saw that while negotiating the nafta, most of our corn and beans come from the us, we are handcuffed on the table, because in the case of a trade war, the us can impose taxes on most of our products, but the main product we import is food from the us, and we cant tax those higher, because our people need it.

so while the us taxes washing machines from mexico, mexico cant tax the corn.

the same is happening with the trade war trump is driving between the us and china, china cant retalliate taxing pork or corn, because thats what people eats...

kyssinger said it better: "Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control the people."

so thats the reason the us subsidize farming

>so thats the reason the us subsidize farming

It may be true that subsidizing corn has the controlling effect you talk about. But I assure you, there is no higher level thinking going on here. The US subsidizes corn for one reason alone. And that is the powerful corn lobby that uses the old idea of a small town farmer to rally voters and strike fear in the heart of any politician who dares oppose corn/farm subsidies.

+1. eddie knows what's up!

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