• MoonMelon@lemmy.ml
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    8 hours ago

    Taber addresses this in her videos and her sources are linked in the description. I highly recommend watching a few then drawing your own conclusion vis-à-vis something like More Perfect Union.

    The TLDW on the suicide rate is that it sounds terrible when comparing occupations, but when compared with the cohort that mostly represents farmers, ie “rural, white men over 40 who own guns”, the rate isn’t exceptional. It’s a terrible statistic but it doesn’t say as much about farming as it does about mental health in general in the USA.

    Regarding the economics, it’s terrible for everyone but farmers get a lot of attention because of how important the image of farmers is to Americans. That said, both personal and farm bankruptcies are still below pre-pandemic levels. Arkansas picked here because of the MPU video, but it’s pretty much the same story nationwide.

    I agree with the MPU video that the farming economy is super broken, over-consolidated, and warped, but that kind of goes for every industry. Perversely enough, farmers make more income under Democrat administrations, but they make less in subsidies. So they tend to vote R. Taber actually ran for agricultural commissioner for her state as a Democrat but lost to the Republican incumbent.