one problem with switching from subsidizing corn to vegetables... the latter are a lot more manpower intensive, as you generally can't harvest them mechanically. So, you'd likely see a big increase in the number of illegal aliens coming up to work. Unless the Feds did something smart, like issue a lot of cheap worker visas. But the chances of that happening are pretty slim...
Yeah, I imagined this would be a factor. Corn is really the perfect crop for capitalists, since it greatly reduces the number of workers required. And if you can't convince the populace to work on those farms you have to bring someone else in.
Now, I'm just thinking out loud here, but what if the subsidy for vegetables was paying workers wages? Create a system for actual seasonal workers, where Mexicans are just shipped north as part of a government funded program and payed by the government to work, but the pay being withheld until they've returned to Mexico? Combine this with a less insane War on Drugs and you might get a slightly better off Mexico, and Americans being less hesitant about "those people" resettling the old Mexican territories. If you can make this system very smooth (yeah, I know) then it might look more attractive than sneaking into the US. It would basically be like how sailors work, just farmhands instead.
While this idea on paper seems a bit like something the Soviets would come up with, in effect it's not that different from what happens now really. Except the government would have more control over where people went, and might create a more stable southern partner to the US.
Thanks for all the replies!
So, a lot of these things can be blamed on the class system?
As with most things, yes. I'm sure there would be something else that would cause problems if that wasn't there, but as it is, the class system is a pretty major factor in many American problems.
First impressions are:
1) Those rates are determined more by definition than anything else. Change the latest fashionable definition of what is "obese," you change the rate. That gets done to distraction here whenever the politicians need an "issue."
While it's true that you can "change" the rate by changing the definition, the American population has still grown a lot fatter over the years. Just look at this statistic by the CDC.
http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html
Which is also kind of interesting, in that it points out something I wasn't aware of; that it's only among women that there is a correlation between poverty and obesity. Which might be related to the fact that single mothers outnumber single fathers 4-to-1. (Having to work multiple jobs is a pretty good way to ensure that you just buy the cheapest and easiest to prepare food.)
2) We have that. Clearly. Haven't had a civil war in 150 years, or a coup d'etat ever.
Yeah, the American population is pretty placid.
People can stand on street corners and say whatever they like (well, almost whatever) about the government.
Except they get attacked by the police for no damn reason at all. Political protests (against the system, not just tea party members venting) are very much not something the political establishment in the US likes. It's not direct government sanctioned violence just yet, but the protests have also been really mild.
Tolerance is clearly pretty high, despite the impression left by bickering Democrats and Republicans during campaign season.
At least among the white population. The poor racial minorities have just been cowed.
Edit: Not saying that the poor white population has no reason to be upset about the political situation, they're just less aware of it. You know, the whole temporarily embarrassed millionaires thing they've got going.
3) This one has more meat. I think people in this country feel they need education, but I don't think we understand that a good education addresses what the student is likely to be doing in the future. Sort of like picking a lot of math classes for a future physicist.
This is true. In the US (and elsewhere), getting a higher academic education has been painted as the one true path. Which ignores that there are plenty of jobs that require more hands-on education, which can actually pay rather well, and where the pressure to get an academic education has meant a severe shortage of workers. I'm sure there are plenty of people sitting around with a BA in whatever, who would be much more successful had they just gotten jobs as a plumber or some other manual-labor service job. This basically goes back to everyone wanting to be middle class and being told that college was the only way, with jobs like plumbing being seen as the domain of losers.