[ExI] Farmville for real

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of Richard Loosemore
...

>...Uh, Spike, I hate to come across as the world expert on farming here,
but I am not sure you are really in touch with the way it actually works on
the ground...

Oh very much to the contrary sir.  Read on.

>...Small farms ARE profitable.  They set up a filthy, almost-collapsing
house somewhere on the farm, then get a couple of dozen undocumented
immigrants from Guatamala to come live in it.  These folks then work in
shifts, all day, all night, seven days a week, for wages so low that some of
them have to get second jobs to make enough to send home...

Richard, none of that is applicable if the owner of the farm holds security
clearances or a professional license of any kind.  I am in both those
categories.  In that case, one must hire legal domestic labor and pay them
minimum wage.  One must file all the legal paperwork, pay all the proper
taxes, do everything according to the letter of the law, otherwise risk
losing those credentials for real employment.  If anyone with a measly 120
acres has figured out how to merely achieve break-even under those
circumstances, they are a miracle worker, worthy to teach the rest of us.

>...Then the farmer makes a fortune, builds the biggest McMansion that this
part of the world has ever seen, gets cable installed, and sits back to
enjoy life.  Don't believe it?  Hey, come visit!  I can put you up in the
barn. :-)  Richard Loosemore

Ja, so people make money on illegal operations.  I want to figure out how to
make actual money legally.  I can assure you it involves something other
than producing food crops.  Food is too cheap by huge margin to make money
creating it.  But if I can get a bunch of amateur Farmvillers to assume all
risk, pay the legal labor, pay someone to write and track hundreds of 1099
forms and pay me for my land, that might be the way.

spike