FDR and the Great Depression

[Knighted]

Slightly OT, but I saw it mentioned before that the FDR administration during the Great Depression supported giving tax dollars to farmers to persuade them to burn excess crops to keep prices artificially high while much of the country was facing famine.

I tried looking into this further but i'm not finding much credible information about it, mostly just heresay. Is this a fact in the mainstream history books or is this basically a conspiracy theory about what may have been taking place during the Great Depression? I'm trying to find a reliable source that describes it.

 

[constitutional]

Here's what Mises has to say about this.

The above analysis has shown the difficulties inherent in the doctrine of consumer sovereignty. But perhaps the reader still feels that something is wrong with the case of the coffee monopolist—isn't it downright wasteful for him to burn perfectly good crops? True, if he derives a thrill from it, then this is an example of (admittedly eccentric) consumption. But what about the more realistic case, where the producer is burning crops just to raise his revenues?

Rothbard points out that such cases will be rare indeed on a free market. The true waste, he argues, is not in the burning of the 200,000 bushels, but rather lies in the earlier decision to grow 1 million bushels (rather than 800,000). Even monopolists will make more profit by correctly estimating their future sales when making production decisions. Thus we need not fear a habitual destruction of product, because the monopolist in question (even in the apparent worst case scenario) would have every incentive to avoid such situations in the future. The resources that were originally devoted to the last 200,000 bushels would then be freed up to make other products for which the consumers are willing to spend more money.

Finally, we should note that the real world examples of widespread crop destruction are due to government cartels. During the Great Depression, for example, farmers did indeed destroy crops while other Americans starved. But this was not an outcome of the free market. No, it was part of FDR's horrible plan to raise farm prices by restricting output.​

http://mises.org/story/1379

 

[RSLudlum]

also slaughtered millions of pigs,....FDR really feared price deflation, so he sought forceful means of price control. Pretty much a true believer in central economic steering.

 

[forsmant]

Don't forget to throw Hoover under that Bus!

 

[Truth Warrior]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Fascism Comes to America[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Table of Contents[/FONT]

[FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif][FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif][FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]by Ralph Raico[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]
http://www.lewrockwell.com/raico/fdr-toc.html​

 

[forsmant]

I actually visit Lew's site regularly. Do you work for them TW? As many times as you have referenced that website on this one I am beginning to think you have an incentive to post the article links here.

 

[Truth Warrior]

I actually visit Lew's site regularly. Do you work for them TW? As many times as you have referenced that website on this one I am beginning to think you have an incentive to post the article links here.

Nope, but I would if they wanted and asked me too. But alas, no, I'm just a long time fan of LRC too.