Jesse Jackson on our empire and bailouts

[Thrashertm]

Jesse Jackson made some remarkably sound points in his 1988 address to the Democratic National Convention. In some of these excerpts, he sounds like the good Dr.

"I just want to take common sense to high places. We're spending one hundred and fifty billion dollars a year defending Europe and Japan forty-three years after the war is over. We have more troops in Europe tonight than we had seven years ago. Yet the threat of war is ever more remote."

...

I just want to take common sense to high places. If we can bail out Europe and Japan; if we can bail out Continental Bank and Chrysler - and Mr. Iacocca make eight thousand dollars an hour - we can bail out the family farmer.

[applause]

I just want to make common sense. It does not make sense to close down six hundred and fifty thousand family farms in this country while importing food from abroad subsidized by the U.S. government. Let's make sense.

[applause]

It does not make sense to be escorting all our tankers up and down the Persian Gulf paying two-fifty for every one dollar worth of oil we bring out, while oil wells are capped in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. I just want to make sense.

http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/sayitplain/jjackson.html

[Legend1104]

I just want to make common sense. It does not make sense to close down six hundred and fifty thousand family farms in this country while importing food from abroad subsidized by the U.S. government. Let's make sense.

the dr. Would not support this. There is nothing wrong with getting food from someone else that can make it better. If those family farms cannot survive in today's market, then they need to fail so that family can go on to do something more productive. I think that, when it comes to family farms, this country is to attached to the "good ole days." by the way, I thought we were subsidizing domestic farmers. Also, some of that food comes from south American countries that grow it in our off season

[LibertarianfromGermany]

It seems rather like he's trying to use the high spending in many areas to justify further spending in form of farm subsidies, etc. The part about the foreign policy sounds sound though.

[Thrashertm]

the dr. Would not support this. There is nothing wrong with getting food from someone else that can make it better. If those family farms cannot survive in today's market, then they need to fail so that family can go on to do something more productive. I think that, when it comes to family farms, this country is to attached to the "good ole days." by the way, I thought we were subsidizing domestic farmers. Also, some of that food comes from south American countries that grow it in our off season

I'm not sure what exactly Jackson is referring to. At the time, I believe we were subsidizing Russian agriculture in order to sell them Caterpillar equipment.

[Thrashertm]

It seems rather like he's trying to use the high spending in many areas to justify further spending in form of farm subsidies, etc. The part about the foreign policy sounds sound though.

In a perfect world, we'd eliminate the empire and return the resources to the people. In a better world than we have now, we'd spend the money on socialism at home instead of bombing people abroad.

[KCIndy]

the dr. Would not support this. There is nothing wrong with getting food from someone else that can make it better. If those family farms cannot survive in today's market, then they need to fail so that family can go on to do something more productive. I think that, when it comes to family farms, this country is to attached to the "good ole days." by the way, I thought we were subsidizing domestic farmers. Also, some of that food comes from south American countries that grow it in our off season


I think if you look into it, you'll discover that the small family farms don't get much by way of subsidies. Part of the reason the small family farms are disappearing so fast is because of the corporate welfare provided by the government to the big companies like ConAgra and Monsanto.