ArcaMax

A farmer was asked what he'd do if he won a million-dollar lottery. "Well," he said, "I guess I'd just keep farming 'til the money runs out."

Trying to make a living as a farmer is not for the fainthearted. You have to take out high-interest loans from cold-eyed bankers to put in a crop and buy supplies. Then you're also at the mercy of everything from bugs to monopolistic middlemen. And here's a cruel twist: If you defy the odds and produce a great crop, you lose money!

This is happening right now. With unusually good weather this year, corn and soybean harvests are expected to set records. But this abundance creates a market glut, allowing middlemen to knock down prices paid to farmers. A bushel of Illinois corn, for example, costs farmers $4.30 to produce, but they're only getting $3.70 for it.

Meanwhile, the cost of such basics as seed, fertilizer and tractors is skyrocketing. High costs coupled with low crop prices means farmers' income is expected to drop by 25% this year.

You might call this good-crop, bad-price phenomenon "ironic." But it's deliberate -- an inevitable product of America's perverse agricultural policy that pushes farmers to overproduce in order to keep commodity prices low for giant processors and retailers. Little known fact: Our national "farm policy" is not written by farmers but by corporate lobbyists, lawyers and economists -- people who couldn't run a watermelon stand if we gave them the melons and had the highway patrol flag down the customers for them.

That has got to change. To join an effort to demand a farm bill written by and for farmers, consumers, workers and our environment, go to: FarmAid.org/Take-Action.

WHY IS IT THAT BIG-SHOT LEADERS NEVER LOOK AROUND TO SEE IF ANYONE'S FOLLOWING?

It never ceases to amaze me that corporate, political, media, religious and other power elites routinely speak and act in the name of the masses -- without ever consulting us hoi polloi.

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This disconnect is the source of a lot of the arrogance, stupidity and inequality afflicting our society.

Consider the huge, very troubling takeover of U.S. Steel by the Japanese conglomerate Nippon. This buyout was being quietly hustled to conclusion by both giants. But -- Boom! -- suddenly the deal hit a steel wall, specifically the furious opposition of America's United Steelworkers union. The corporate elites had smugly cut a backroom deal without ever mentioning it to the union! Thousands of workers had their livelihoods arrogantly treated as irrelevant. So, the union just said uh-uh, and the executive boneheads' big buyout went from done to life support.

The stupidity gene has also embedded itself in the brains of Christian authoritarians. They are hellbent on forcing their holier-than-thou church dogma on all of us -- without, of course, asking whether we want to be "saved" by them. So here comes one Ryan Walters, Oklahoma's hyper-Christian superintendent of public schools. In a Burning Bush moment, Ryan felt God ordained him to decree that every classroom must henceforth display a Bible, and all teachers must alter their lesson plans to teach from it -- even math teachers!

But a funny thing happened to this unelected flaming theocrat: Local school boards and teachers simply ignored him. Ryan, brimming with ego, had not bothered to consult parents, school boards, teachers or legislators -- so no Bibles have been purchased and no curriculums have been changed.

However, his dictatorial theatrics did get the attention of one major group: Oklahoma's GOP lawmakers are now investigating his "rogue behavior."

To find out more about Jim Hightower and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.

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