Editorials in leading daily newspapers, such as the Washington Post , have suggested that a government bailout of farmers is unwarranted, since there are no bailouts for small businessmen and other family-run enterprises which run into economic difficulty. But there are deeper social reasons why politicians so callous towards welfare recipients and the poor are less indifferent to the plight of the farmers. To the extent that the Republican Party has a popular social base, outside of the extreme right and Christian fundamentalist elements which have come to play such a prominent role in recent years, it is to a considerable extent in rural and small-town America, especially in the Midwest, where the farm crisis now threatens to create a political upheaval. There is no solution to the farm crisis, however, within the framework of the capitalist market. A fundamental contradiction under the profit system is the accumulation of vast surpluses of agricultural commodities which cannot be sold at a profit, side by side with, on a world scale, enormous unmet social needs for food, clothing, and raw materials.
Children starve in Africa and India while American farmers go bankrupt for lack of buyers.
This contradiction can only be resolved when agriculture is integrated into a reorganized world economic system in which rational planning, not private profit, is the driving force. The WSWS invites your comments. Please send e-mail .