The whole “more cows and computerized milking raised prices of milk” reeks of anti-industrial Luddite garbage.
What actually raises the price of milk is the farmer uses his profits to buy up other local dairy farms consolidating their position in the market. They then sign exclusivity deals with both grocers and further milk processors (who are also consolidating) to prevent competing in the market, driving their competitors to either sell for cheap or go out of business. https://theconversation.com/americas-dairy-farms-are-disappearing-down-95-since-the-1970s-milk-price-rules-are-one-reason-why-237439#:~:text=Across the country%2C the dairy,per farm – has been rising.
Because “farm Inc” has a massive horde of wealth, they can stamp out competition by either buying them out, cutting them out, or driving them out of business with prices a small farmer can’t handle. After that, they get to set and raise prices at will with the now smaller pool of big name “farm Inc”.
This literally happens every time a market is poorly regulated and businesses allowed to grow too big. It’s the natural end state of capitalism.
Feudalism
Year One
Your lord owns two hundred cows. You’re required to milk them sun-up to sun-down 2-3 days a week. The lord gets the milk. You’re not paid for your labour. You don’t own any land of your own, in fact, you don’t own anything. You’re allowed to live on your lord’s property, and not allowed to leave it. You’re considered to be “tied to the land”. On the days when you’re not required to milk the cows you’re allowed to work a small plot of land which you can use to feed yourself. Your lord gets a cut of anything you grow for yourself too. If your lord’s eldest daughter gets married, you’re required to pay your lord a customary fee. Since you don’t own anything, you’ll likely have to contribute some of your harvest which you were planning to use to feed yourself and your family. If your own daughter marries someone from outside the estate, you’re required to pay the lord a fine. If your lord chooses, you can be sold to another lord, and then you’ll move to their land and milk their cows instead.
Year Two
See Year One.
Year Two Hundred
See Year One.
Do you not see how we are currently slipping towards feudalism? No one owns anything anymore, we pay half our money to land-lords, the rest to stay alive
If I call this socialism I’ll probably get yelled at by a nerd
Year 1:
A farmer owns two cows. You offer your services to milk them. You are now co-owners of cow-milkers incorporated. You each milk one cow. This gives you more than enough milk for yourself, and you sell the rest of the milk to pay for maintenance of the cow and are still left with a little cash left over to purchase what you want. Much of your left over cash goes to a community fund.
Year 2:
Your cow business is going well. You and the farmer agree that you could probably handle more cows. You opt to purchase a bull. This is a large purchase so you petition the community to allow you to dip into its funds and purchase a bull. You do so and soon you have five or six cows, still enough for you and the farmer to handle but honestly, it’s a pretty full day’s work. You employ a third person for the business. They become a co-owner and are afforded an equal share of the revenue. This share of profits is still larger for all three of you, you can even reduce the price of milk, in a similar manner the beer producers are reducing the price of their products because the community agrees for them to buy a bigger still and the vegetable sellers are reducing the price of their products because they were afforded larger fields. Now you’re selling stuff for cheaper but so is everyone else so it feels like you’ve got even more spending power to buy luxuries on top of the public good you support!
Year 3:
Here’s the kicker: you and the other two people think you can keep expanding. You dip into the communal fund to purchase new automatic cow milkers that were developed by the egghead academics that were funded by part of that community fund you keep contributing to. The same community fund that’s stopped you from being severely sick at multiple points in your life and has been used to provide housing for everyone in your village.
And suddenly.
You’re making more milk than you ever dreamed of! Sure you’ve got to clean the machines once a day, but you’re milking a hundred cows! And maybe you add, hell, five new people onto the company! That just gives you more free time, you can sell the milk for dirt cheap and still make more money than you ever were. Sure, you’ve got to divide the work up now. Shipping 100 cows worth of milk a day to the market ain’t easy but you’re going gangbusters.
Not to mention! The vegetable farmer and the beer producer automated their own stock, so they’re selling beer for carrots for milk for pennies on the dollar they cost last year, and they’re only getting richer! Those egghead’s keep inventing new gizmos and the world has its basic needs met while everyone is able to work less and less. Not only are the basics dirt cheap but the luxuries are too.
Be careful where you step on this issue.
Pretty sure tankies are banned in the rules here.
Whats your opinion on NATO?
Disagreeing with imperialism makes you a tankie now? What in the absolute liberal brainrot what do you mean?
It exists as an extension of American imperial power, its how America wages war and influnces so many countries. Is it not outrageous to want an end to the endless cycle of forever war perpetuated by the military industrial complex and nato?
Not all leftists are tankies. This is a pretty standard take on the failures of capitalism.
It seems like a sizable portion of .world users have a thing for making up issues and claiming tankies are the cause of these imaginary issues, then getting together for a circle jerk about how great they are for recognizing these tankie problems.
They’re just like the American MAGA idiots - stupid people loudly getting upset about things.
Shouldn’t exist, but that hardly proves my political allegiances.
You pass btw
What do you think about the economy being owned by the working class? Also what about a future where the global south isn’t drained of resources in the name of the capitalist class?
Tankie is not synonymous with socialist/communist.
Edit: and neither is criticizing capitalism
Yeah thats fine but federated instances are absolutely writhing with tankies who will use sentiments like this to encourage subterfuge and spread propoganda.
Maybe capitalism should have made sure we didn’t need 2-3 jobs all at 40 hours a week just to pay rent and groceries. Buying a home? Forget it.
I feel like if you react to any left-wing posts like a you’re the main role in a 50’s red scare propaganda video, they’ve already won.
Wtf did I read?
i too am a luddite