A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you are talking about real money

By Jim Thompson
HCP columnist

The headline to this column is attributed to the late Sen. Everett Dirksen of Illinois around 1968. It would need to be updated today, unless you are a farmer.

You know I don’t like subsidies. I have made that clear before. The first farm subsidies came about in 1933. The economic infrastructure of farming has kept us locked into them for 91 years. I get it, and I’ll be the last one to take a dollar out of any farmer’s pocket.

As much as l like farmers, I also like education. However, higher education costs have gotten out of hand. As the Wall Street Journal reported on Dec. 23, the total student loan debt at the moment is around $1.6 trillion. The Biden Administration’s attempt to forgive a portion of this debt has been held up by a federal appeals court since summer.

In the bill passed by Congress just before their Christmas recess, there were $10 billion in subsidies for farmers.  In recent years, farm subsidies have been higher than this and lower than this, but $10 billion is a good number to keep in mind on an annual basis.

Just for the fun of it, what would that $1.6 trillion in student loans average over the last 91 years – the length of time we have had farm subsidies? $17.5 billion per year.

One can find plenty of white papers, especially from conservative think tanks, that criticize farm subsidies.  Some of these argue that farm subsidies amount to more than $30 billion per year and that 50 people on the Forbes 400 wealthiest list receive outsized farm subsidy payments. I didn’t know farm subsidies were means-tested.

What I do know is that a bushel of wheat this year is at about the same price it was in 1975 (not inflation adjusted, just the raw price). Since 1980, the average price of college tuition, fees and room and board have gone up 155%.  

A farmer’s combine now cost more than a family home and large tractors are approaching this price.
About 1967, when I was a teenager, I wrote a letter to the newspaper stating that the farmer is in the only industry where equipment and consumables are bought at retail prices and the products are sold at wholesale prices. For large farms, this is still true. Small vegetable and fruit farmers may have an opportunity to sell retail.

All I can tell you is don’t whine to me about the cost of higher education as long as the current conditions in agriculture and education remain as they have been for most of my adult life.

Jim Thompson, formerly of Marshall, is a graduate of Hillsboro High School and the University of Cincinnati. He resides in Duluth, Ga. and is a columnist for The Highland County Press.