It's not about the money. It's the thin edge of the wedge, separating you from control over your own property - and handing that control to someone else. Arguing about what a reasonable price is, or how they can use vs. abuse that control, is like arguing how the prison guards should treat you, instead of trying to escape.
replyWhere I am from most farmers are millionaires. They are all corporations. 200 per machine per year is nothing to them.
replyIn the US, according to USDA, the median total family income for a farming family is ca $108k
replyWhich is a huge amount over the median all family income in the US of 83k. So in that sense farmers are richer than average Americans.
replyI would not say $1-$2k/mo extra income counts as a huge amount richer. It’s like 58th percentile by family income. I don’t really think it makes sense to call solidly middle class income rich in any sense…
replyThey’re asset millionaires and maybe gross revenue millionaires, but not typically net income millionaires.
replyMost millionaires are asset millionaires. Almost nobody has a million in their savings account.
replyThat is how they know the subscription is a bad idea. They are afraid of being squeezed like they squeeze their own labor. That 200 dollar fee will go up any time the CEO needs to juice the stock price.
replyWell this is the problem with farming and politics.
replyYou have a long tail of poor farmers, and a few very large powerful farmers.
Thus you have the politics of the small family farm barely making a living, and large industrial monocultures at the same time, and people picking and choosing which, as and when it suits.
For a large commercial operation, $200/year is nothing, but it's enough to hurt the smaller guys.
reply$200/year, now.
replyTo put this in perspective, a large John Deere tractor with a corn header costs in the neighborhood of $1.25 million.
replyEh... I was thinking of harvesters, not tractors.
replyA buddy of mine just bought 2 John Deere 8R tractors, he says he got a deal at $1.6 mil. $900k for the tracked machine and $700K for the wheeled. His combines are close to $1mil when you add in the grain heads.
reply