--- Alex wrote: > Yes, I believe that the majority of the American public supports > farm subsidies. to which Fred Foldvary replied:
>Why do corporations, lawyers, unions, and other interests provide candidates and elected representatives with millions of dollars of funds and favors if they just vote to satisfy the median voter? Is the literature on rent seeking empirically irrelevant?< There is a difference between "supporting farm subsidies" and supporting a particular pattern of subsidies, and that is no doubt worth fighting over. It remains possible both to think American generally support farm support, and to have reservations about particular aspects (such as the support of all the mohair grown in my area, or sugar). Of course, as a practical political matter, a whole bunch of logs have to get rolled for a farm-support bill to pass, so the question is, again, whether the representative American voter (or eligible voter) thinks that overall he is better served by something like the rent-ridden present system or by a system in which there is no rent -- and _his_ favored projects are not supported. Michael Michael E. Etchison Texas Wholesale Power Report MLE Consulting www.mleconsulting.com 1423 Jackson Road Kerrville, TX 78028 (830) 895-4005
