this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2024
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I’m confused. Are farmers the ones buying oversized trucks just to drop of the kids and shop at Walmart.
No, farmers are buying them to do work. His point is that they couldn't afford them if there weren't huge subsidies for farmers. If those subsidies didn't exist, farmers would still need pickups, so the manufacturers would almost have to come up with cheaper models, or they'd lose sales to companies that do.
I know it's edgy and popular to blame farmers for a large number of things. But there aren't enough farmers to buy that many pickup trucks to sustain the sheer number of of them produced.
Look inward young urbane urbanite.
The farmers I knew ran their trucks for 20+ years.
I doubt they are a particularly large influence in the market.
I wasn't blaming farmers for anything. I was holding them up as an example of someone that legitimately likely needs a pickup. And if tax breaks are available to them, why shouldn't they take advantage of them? You can argue the subsidies shouldn't be there, and perhaps they shouldn't, but they are, and I don't blame people for taking advantage of them.
Similar situation: Education has gotten so expensive, possibly because student loans are so readily available. If there were no loans available, few people could afford college, so it seems very likely the colleges would find ways to make it less expensive...or a bunch would go out of business.
I am neither young nor an urbanite.
Exactly. Farmers buy the reasonable trucks, nimbys buy the ridiculous trucks. That's how it works in my area at least, once I leave suburbia, I see the reasonable trucks owned by people who actually use them as trucks.