I saw a news story yesterday about a hailstorm in upstate New York.  The apple growers were showing the effect that the storm had on their crop.  Apples got dinged by hailstones ranging in size from pea to quarter-size.  Some orchards didn't get touched, some lost 40% of their crop and some lost almost everything.  So growers were calling for federal aid like low interest loans to get them through to the next season.

The Feds have been subsidizing farmers for a long time.  One grower of rice in Texas gets piles of money for not planting a single seed.  According to the Washington Post:  "The checks to Matthews and other landowners were intended 10 years ago as a first step toward eventually eliminating costly, decades-old farm subsidies. Instead, the payments have grown into an even larger subsidy that benefits millionaire landowners, foreign speculators and absentee landlords, as well as farmers."  Sound ridiculous?  It is, but read on.

According to the New York Sun:  "Billionaires Edgar Bronfman Sr. and Leonard Lauder are among the New York City-based "farmers" who have received federal farm subsidies in the past several years, according to a new set of data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  Between 2003 and 2005, Mr. Bronfman received $17,455 in subsidies for his farm in Virginia's Albemarle County, and Mr. Lauder received $3,015.58 between 2003 and 2004 through his share of an organic farm in Idaho, the data show."  How ridiculous is that?

OK, let's move to real estate.  Markets in Southern California, Arizona, Florida and other areas of the country have been hit extremely hard by the mortgage meltdown and the incredible run-up in home prices.  The cause was mainly aggressive lenders and investor/speculators.  The people who were hurt the most were home owners, but REALTORS took a beating as well.  If we compare homes to crops, the REALTORS are like farmers.  Shouldn't they get Federal aid?  How about paying REALTORS not to sell homes?  That would be pretty incredible, wouldn't it?

OK, this is a little tongue-in-cheek, but think about it.  The Federal government is a monster that is out of control in areas and it needs to be fixed.  But hey, if the Feds start offering REALTORS big bucks not to sell homes, I see a vacation home in Arizona!