When originally proposed in 1933, the idea of paying farmers federal subsidies to destroy or refrain from harvesting crops was intended to stabilize prices and prevent family farmers from going under during the Great Depression.
As revealed by Jim Hightower, the former TX Agricultural Commissioner, in Thieves in High Places, at present the farm subsidy program "delivers zero money to 69% of America's real farmers, awarding some of the biggest payments to such corporate giants as DuPont and Chevron." Hightower furnished the classic example of the corporate perversion of the FDR program that was intended to save the family farm: government subsidies paid out to Charles Schwab, the NY stockbroker, whose $4.7 billion fortune places him 67th on the list of wealthiest Americans. |