OUR OPINION: Farm Bill matters more than many think
December 20, 2012 at 5:07 pm in Grand Forks Herald
Start with the prospect of $6-a-gallon milk. But don’t finish there, because avoiding that price hike is just one of the reasons for Congress to pass a five-year Farm Bill before Dec. 31. Continue Reading
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“Stealing mil crates” is probably about the 41st or 42nd reason that mile prices are where they are.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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Stealing, shoplifting, etc. adds to the cost of business. The business adds the loss to the price of its products, services, etc.
The US Postal Service loses alot of mail tubs per year, too. People use them at home and/or work to store items. That contributes to a higher postage cost for you and me.
It all adds up.
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But then again we feed a lot of people in this country through SNAP. Maybe $6 a gallon for milk won’t break me but I will also have to pay a higher price for milk at every school in the country. Do I pay here or do I pay there?
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Go to a school lunchroom, during lunch time, to see how much milk (and food) is wasted.
It will surprise you.
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Let the free market work.
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cant make spending cuts without some pain being felt.
The nation is broke.
Spending cuts need to be serious, not the token crap thats been proposed thus far.
Halt every dime of Foreign Aid until we get our affairs in order.
Halt ALL Grants and interest free loans etc.
Milk will drop in price when the supply starts to peak and they dont have buyers.
It all equals out in the end, scare tatctics must be brought to an end.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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America can at times be the most dishonest, immature, and down right selfish place on the planet.
75-80% of the nation describe themselves as ardent free market types (both Dem and Rep), yet they have a fit when someone talks about cutting their favorite federal program. Artificial price controls, subsidies, and protectionism are the antithesis of a free market.
We talk a great talk, but when it comes time to walk the walk, we are less than willing to make the trip.
There are more than a few historians who believe protectionism played a large role in Britain’s demise as a superpower. Their arguments are compelling.
That is worrisome considering we are taking pages out of their 19 century play book verbatim.
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There will be $6/gallon milk when the ND Dairy Board unilaterally declares it.
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“There is no permanent disaster protection program in place, even as most of the counties across the nation were declared agricultural disaster areas by the USDA at some point during 2012″
We are enjoying an above average year as far as crops go; everyone is making money, yet most of the counties across the nation were disaster areas?
We are making money because one segment of the economy is being artificially propped up by the rest.
This type of situation has to go. This is indefensible.
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I cannot believe some of the lack of awareness of theft on this forum. Not too many here have ever been a retail business owner.
When shoplifting occurs, it takes away from the business income. Whenever shoplifting occurs (and yes, some employees steal from their employers, too.) it causes the business to lose money.
A business has to make money or it cannot operate. The loss is added to the cost of the product (groceries, etc.) and services (carpet cleaners, etc.).
Stealing milk crates, mail tubs and a host of other thefts are causing you to pay more from your pocketbook.
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Article from 2007:
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/economy/2007-07-22-4129815484_x.htm
Some of the math is interesting. For example, it says ground up plastic from stolen dairy and bakery crates had skyrocketed to 22 cents a pound. It goes on to say that one recycling business that was caught in a sting buying the crates had an entire semi load of ground up plastic material confiscated. The semi load contained 24,000 pounds of material, worth “at least a quarter million dollars”, according to the investigator.
Not advocating theft, but how does 24,000 pounds multiplied by 22 cents per pound give us “at least a quarter million dollars”?
The same article says dairy companies buy the crates for about $4 each, so at $4 each, the quarter-million dollar figure gives us a total of 62,500 ground-up crates to fit in that 50 foot semi trailer.
But wait….if 62,500 of the ground-up crates equal a quarter million dollars, and the semi held, (according to the article), 24,000 pounds, then does a milk crate itself weigh in at .384 pounds?
The same article says retailers sell the crates to consumers for $10 each, so a quarter million dollars THERE equals 25,000 of the crates. Even at the full-boat retail price of $10 each, then we arrive at the same semi load of 24,000 pounds having to equal 25,000 of the crates. So in that scenario the crates would have to weigh 1.042 pounds each.
I think commercial milk crates weigh between 4 and 5 pounds. A trailer containing 24,000 pounds would then contain 6,000 of the ground-up crates.
But, from the article we get this:
“He said his biggest bust targeted E.S. Plastics in the Los Angeles suburb of Maywood.
In April, he said, he and his colleagues recovered 24,000 pounds of ground-up plastic from crates belonging to dairies, bakeries and beverage companies.
“It took a 50-foot trailer to haul all the stolen property out of there — at least a quarter-million dollars of plastics,” Wall said.”
Weird….
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You’re good, scott. No, you’re actually great, Scott.
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Thanks, but to be fair I did mess up in the retail pricing paragraph. I divided 25,000 by 24,000 instead of the other way around. If the semi contained 24,000 pounds of material and the full-boat retail price of the crates meant their “quarter-million dollars” would have to be 25,000 ground-up crates in the semi trailer, then each one of those crates would have to weigh .96 pounds, and….they don’t.
That doesn’t matter much though, ’cause the dairy/bakery companies most certainly did not pay full retail for the crates.
Still not supporting/advocating/condoning theft, but if anyone is trying to explain away the high cost of their goods or services by pointing a finger at theft as being the culprit, they need to ‘fess up to their OWN “theft” that occurs every day when the books are fudged in this manner to arrive at some preconceived *loss* target they yanked out of thin air…..
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If businesses lose so much money on milk crate theft, why do they leave them outside, unprotected where they can be stolen?
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There is probably no deposit on them. If there was a deposit on them made by the user (convenience store, etc.), they would be given a fenced in area or warm place to stay.
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Nurse, a large portion of our grain producing states were in a severe drought. Texas ok mo iowa nebraska kansas ect… were true disaster areas. The red river valley was very lucky, it received rains early on and at critical growing times during the summer. This area benefited from a decent crop with inflated prices due to our southern neighbors disaster.
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We had a good discussion on that socialist farm bill at coffee this morning: “Don’t these farmers understand that when they accept federal money they lose their rights under the constitution and are under the rules stipulated by the federal government! We MUST support the House Republican Conservatives who want to reduce or eliminate subsidies and crop insurance to farmers! Farmers have to understand that simply can’t listen to “I am from the government and I am her to help”! Don’t farmers understand that if they take their help and money the farmers have to do what they are told to do! This is what got us into all this trouble now…people taking taxpayer funds! Subsidies to farmers works the same way as welfare to the poor…they ALL get dependant on the federal government…our tax money! Subsidies are a way of controlling farmers! Don’t you think it’s time these farmers acted like true Americans and stood up and took care of themselves?” We TeaPublicans WILL take back America in 2014 and 2016…and we WILL take back that socialist farm bill too!
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Leave it up to the GOP controled US House to screw up yet another bill that should have been voted on long ago. It seems like true to form they couldn’t get thier work done for the American people. It also seems like thier rigid ideology is more important than the American people.
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