pknoeber said:
DiamondSCattleCo said:
Please, MRJ. I've stood up for the small farmer/rancher on this site many, many times. I _am_ a small rancher (in US herd size terms. In Saskatchewan herd size terms, just slightly above average.) who is currently attempting to make a go at being a large rancher.
This is exactly what Tyson has done. They've just done it faster b/c they chose an industry that isn't as dispersed or capital-intensive (as measured by sales-assets) as ranching. Does there need to be oversight? Yes. Are they continually putting the screws to their suppliers? Yes. Just like everybody else. Haven't you ever haggled over the price of hay or mineral? If it got past a certain point, then the producers would put together their own coop, so there does exist a natural check on their usury. Not a perfect system, but it's what we have & we need to learn to make the best of it by bringing ourselves up, not by cutting them down.
Phil, I disagree with you. Tyson hasn't only just put the screws to their suppliers, they have broken the PSA law by using their market power to cheat producers. The courts are not holding them accountable.
The only solution I see here is to change the government for lack of oversight and ability to govern for the country instead of those paying them off. Your old prof. may be having the same problem if he is skewing economic studies cloaked in credibility of "non biased academia". You seem to have bought the corporate line here. I have not. Producers should not have to combat market power with market power. They should be able to use the laws of the land to gain justice. Without those laws even corporations like Tyson are on shakey ground---at least their puppet managers are. It is a poor system to have in the USA. Who has the biggest guns? Under your reasoning, everyone must cheat or be swallowed up by those that do through similar "competition". Your reasoning will lead to more civil violence as injustice is sanctified by the government who is bought off by these guys. It is as unamerican as it comes. The if you can't beat them, join them in their games is a corporate load of cr___. Tyson should not have high ranking officials pardoned by the president nor have judges change the law from the bench so they can get by breaking the law with impunity.
There is a reason most electrical utilities are public or hugely regulated. It is because they have economies of scale and market power over customers. Packers in a concentrated market are the same.
What you suggest in this post is a road to corporatism (fascism).