Bad policy has killed small farms.
People love to bash on the rich and a favorite target are estate taxes. Estate taxes kill most small farms.
Do some quick math on the impact of a low esate tax level with no exemption for farms as supported by the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations.
Take a 200 acre family farm with suburban sprawl feeding rising property values to around $80,000 an acre ( as my rural town is seeing even in a recession). When the owner dies the feds hit the family with a 50% tax based on 200 acres X $80,000.
People who bash the rich just hit that grieving family with an $8 million tax bill. They just forced a small farm out of business because they wanted to punish the rich.
That math applies to many small businesses as well. So maybe Walmart is not killing as many small stores as our government.
Even at the higher and much maligned $3 million Bush tax rate you would still punish these small farm owners for being rich.
