If you're curious as to what the lyrics to this song mean, you need look no further than the vanishing family farms across the United States. This has happened due to any number of factors, including demand for cheap food (driven by falling wages since the 1970s), government subsidies for big agribusiness that fuel factory farming as opposed to traditional family farms, and general apathy amongst the American people. We don't make enough money anymore to afford to shop anywhere but Wal-Mart, unless you're in the upper classes, and people wear this fact like a badge of honor. It's become a point of pride amongst the working class to eschew buying anything from any source other than Wal-Mart, because those who make enough money to avoid it aren't connected to the working class. That's true, but it also kills local businesses and family farms.
Family farms have to charge more for their crops than big agribusiness due to the economy of scale. If you grow 10,000 acres of peas, for instance, you can afford to sell them at, let's say, $0.50 per pound and still make a profit. A family farmer can't grow 10,000 acres of peas because he or she needs that land to grow other crops and also to graze animals. So the family farmer can only grow 5 acres of peas, which need to sell for, let's say, $2.00 per pound just to buy seed for next year and keep the farm going.
When people make less than subsistence wages, and we all have since at least the late 70's or so, regardless of how we perceive it, we can't afford real food. We rely on factory farmed, genetically engineered, hormone-treated stuff. This is, incidentally, the status quo advocated by so-called conservative politicians. How conservative is it to advocate for big agribusiness at the expense of family farms and living wages?
@madman8199 - people need to understand that capitalism is like a virus. It follows very simple rules and has no moral agency. The virus that sickens and kills you has nothing against you personally, it is too simple for that. It is just following the logic of viruses - "hijack cells and use them to reproduce".
@madman8199 - people need to understand that capitalism is like a virus. It follows very simple rules and has no moral agency. The virus that sickens and kills you has nothing against you personally, it is too simple for that. It is just following the logic of viruses - "hijack cells and use them to reproduce".
Similarly capitalism follows the logic of "reduce the cost of inputs". The fact that this causes people to suffer is irrelevant to the decision making process. If you work for PepsiCo you'd be insane to spend a cent more on, say, corn...
Similarly capitalism follows the logic of "reduce the cost of inputs". The fact that this causes people to suffer is irrelevant to the decision making process. If you work for PepsiCo you'd be insane to spend a cent more on, say, corn than you absolutely have to because all of your competitors are buying as cheaply as they possibly can and everyone is working with razor-thin profit margins.
We have shackled ourselves to a system that treats us like livestock an we wonder why so many people are suffering.
If you're curious as to what the lyrics to this song mean, you need look no further than the vanishing family farms across the United States. This has happened due to any number of factors, including demand for cheap food (driven by falling wages since the 1970s), government subsidies for big agribusiness that fuel factory farming as opposed to traditional family farms, and general apathy amongst the American people. We don't make enough money anymore to afford to shop anywhere but Wal-Mart, unless you're in the upper classes, and people wear this fact like a badge of honor. It's become a point of pride amongst the working class to eschew buying anything from any source other than Wal-Mart, because those who make enough money to avoid it aren't connected to the working class. That's true, but it also kills local businesses and family farms.
Family farms have to charge more for their crops than big agribusiness due to the economy of scale. If you grow 10,000 acres of peas, for instance, you can afford to sell them at, let's say, $0.50 per pound and still make a profit. A family farmer can't grow 10,000 acres of peas because he or she needs that land to grow other crops and also to graze animals. So the family farmer can only grow 5 acres of peas, which need to sell for, let's say, $2.00 per pound just to buy seed for next year and keep the farm going.
When people make less than subsistence wages, and we all have since at least the late 70's or so, regardless of how we perceive it, we can't afford real food. We rely on factory farmed, genetically engineered, hormone-treated stuff. This is, incidentally, the status quo advocated by so-called conservative politicians. How conservative is it to advocate for big agribusiness at the expense of family farms and living wages?
@madman8199 - people need to understand that capitalism is like a virus. It follows very simple rules and has no moral agency. The virus that sickens and kills you has nothing against you personally, it is too simple for that. It is just following the logic of viruses - "hijack cells and use them to reproduce".
@madman8199 - people need to understand that capitalism is like a virus. It follows very simple rules and has no moral agency. The virus that sickens and kills you has nothing against you personally, it is too simple for that. It is just following the logic of viruses - "hijack cells and use them to reproduce".
Similarly capitalism follows the logic of "reduce the cost of inputs". The fact that this causes people to suffer is irrelevant to the decision making process. If you work for PepsiCo you'd be insane to spend a cent more on, say, corn...
Similarly capitalism follows the logic of "reduce the cost of inputs". The fact that this causes people to suffer is irrelevant to the decision making process. If you work for PepsiCo you'd be insane to spend a cent more on, say, corn than you absolutely have to because all of your competitors are buying as cheaply as they possibly can and everyone is working with razor-thin profit margins.
We have shackled ourselves to a system that treats us like livestock an we wonder why so many people are suffering.