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No, we are not crazy, just overburdoned. we spend more time making a living than most any other advanced nation. We are more divided by regional politics. We are also too easily manipulated by a two party winner take all system that has become passe. we have large urban areas full of folks who register to vote but don't use the vote. These uncast votes are all too often "commandeered" by the political machine in their area and cast for them.We have a media with its own adgenda all too ready to skew the facts and put the spin on the truth. In short, we are too easily taken advantage of.

We are simply human and will endure this system until it becomes unlivable for too many of us. Then as history has proven time after time, all hell will break loose and things will get ugly until restructured. This usually happens when some force outside the control of the system causes it to fail. It can be a radical short term change of climate like a bad drought. It can be a sudden onset of some form of plague, a series of repeated natural disasters, etc. or it could be a war gone wrong.

Civil unrest hardly ever topples a political system. Starvation will every time. Up until the advent of mass media, I.e. the printing press, it was easy for rulers to fool their subjects into making war on some other people to focus their attention away from the system's failings to support them. Plus, most subjects had less say. Since the advent of the printed word and mass media, most civil unrest focuses on the government. If things get bad enough , the system topples and gets restructured after a time of anarchy and/or iron handed rule by the military to restore order.

We are too far past the point where votes and public demand will bring any meaningful change. We do not have the support of enough government leaders to matter. The Vietnam era proved this. The system's own short comings were never really addressed. So here we are again, going through the same thing again. The system works too well for them so we will have to live with it until the balance of power radically shifts towards the citizenry and away from these self serving leeches we call representatives.

Leeches I like that, think I'll go fishin.

and the anticipated delivery date for the wads is????????

rayb

Yeah, I know...this whole thing started because someone was bitching about the price of wads. Hey, what else is new? Rolling Eyes

i'm all in favor of $2.49 per box of 25 shells, but that day doesn't come very often..

i'm just cheap... Very Happy

rayb

...and honest!! Laughing

Member Joined: 01 Feb 2006 Posts: 450 Location: Indiana

The big oil companies will soon own the ethonal and bio fuel companies if the cost of the ethanol and bio desiel drops to low. The oil Co. will buy them up under another name and make sure the cost stays up. The farmers are not going to make anything more than what they are already getting for their grain. Depression prices. The only way thay can make more is get larger for more ground. The cost of the grain is not going to go up.
They know the farmer will not organize because in reality each one is to deeply independent. They know the farmer will not hold out on not planting. The kicker is the farmer could control the cost of food,fuel and most goods around the world if they would stand their ground and tell the energy companies to keep their fuel, tell the forein countries keep their oil and goods and eat their sand for their diet.
The larger oil companies have been preparing for this very thing over the last 20yrs. That is why they have been investing very heavy in South America. Cattle and grain. I have seen it, been their. Their is still time but time is running out.
And don't think this stuff don't get monitored cause it does.

Member Joined: 26 Apr 2005 Posts: 743

Assuming most ethanol will continue to be made from corn (and there are other alternatives, like switchgrass--which can also be used for biodiesel), the price of corn MUST go up, unless the farmers start producing more corn. (That's possible, but there isn't likely to be a really significant increase because of the corn-soybean rotation typical in much of the Midwest. Doing corn following corn too many years in a row is bad for the soil.) It's called the law of supply and demand. There's already demand for corn with the current level of ethanol production. As ethanol production increases, demand will increase, and there will be more competition for the (relatively constant) supply of corn. And so far, it's been Big Ag (ADM, etc) building the ethanol plants--with foreign investors now showing an interest. On a small scale, no reason farmers can't pool their resources and build their own ethanol plants--or their farmer-owned Coops can.

The farmers will try--and fail. The deck has been stacked already. The idea of a co-op and expanded production still requires money--borrowed money. The folks who control energy are also the same ones who control cash flow, interest rates, and indirectly, produce prices. They will lend out the funds at just squeek by rates, buy grain at just squeek by prices, then when the notes come due after a bad season or two, they forclose, and end up with the whole bag of marbles. So it goes, and so it has been for centuries in our western culture. It's simply another version of enclosure. The rich get more, the farmers get screwed. The beat goes on.

Energy is a commodity just too necessary to leave to the vagaries of a free market, which is why there never will be a free market. The folks with the gold make the rules. There will be good eras, and bad eras, but by and large, the human race does not change much. so just tighten your belts, and live through this time of adjustment as best you can. you are not in control of much. Just take care of what you can. It ain't your fault. Its just your lot.

Joined: 15 Oct 2004 Posts: 787 Location: Indiana

American farmers will most assuredly produce more corn...and soybeans. The improvements in genetics ALONE, say Purdue University ag economists, account for an ANNUAL corn yield increase of something like 2 bushels of corn per acre. On a 9.5 to 10 BILLION bushel annual U. S. corn crop, there's a lot of potential for production increases...... This is not to mention the increase in yield due to more complete and accurate placement of fertilizer (due to GPS equipped spreaders/applicators) and the improvement in harvesting efficiency (better combines---more expensive too!)

For about 3 years, I was on the Dean's Ag Advisory Committee at Purdue, and the onset of genetically modified crops of all types was just coming into being. We can now grow hybrids which are drought-tolerant and low-phosphate (less smelly manure when fed to hogs in confined feeding operations), as well as highly-palatable feed corn with high cellulose content for silage for beef and dairy cows. Production is increasing and unless world demand keeps pace, or a severe weather situation develops to negatively impact supply, prices are unfortunately going to remain close to the Government loan rate......

Anybody gonna call Chris this week??

Slidehammer

Joined: 26 Dec 2005 Posts: 79 Location: Round Rock, TX

I just emailed him.

Unfortunately, most late model production cars can't tolerate more than 10% ethanol. Most folks with newer vehicles won't be able to trade up for quite a while. the car manufacturing industry is part of the energy empire. so this is not by acident. I do not know it its economically feasable to retrofit existing vehicles to burn fuel with higher precentages of ethanol.

I've been warned that burning the max 10% mix in my car will shorten its service life by some 30% or more. However, our state government has chosen to legislate that all auto fuel contain this much. I understand that the percentage will be adjusted upwards every few years or so. This tells me that government is always part of the problem and hardly ever part of the solution. So what else is new?

Joined: 26 Dec 2005 Posts: 79 Location: Round Rock, TX

And, the answer from Kris is:

Remington has told me that they are working on the order but I don't have a delivery date.