It's intentional in capitalism. Any surplus will cause the price to plummet, so for it to function properly there has to be unsatisfied demand. The government even pays some farmers to not grow things on their land.

[–] sab@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The crops are all in and the peaches are rotting,
The oranges piled in their creosote dumps. ♪

[–] Katana314@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I'd never heard of that song, so you made me look it up. Thanks, I learned something today.

[–] Manmoth@lemmy.ml -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The government paying farmers not to grow something isn't capitalism. If anything it's central planning.

[–] School_Lunch@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It seems like the only central planning the US ever does is to prop up capitalism from some inherent flaw instead of just fixing the underlying foundation.

In this specific example, my question is why pay farmers to not grow crops instead of encouraging them to create a surplus and just paying them the difference in the price drop?

[–] Manmoth@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

In this specific example, my question is why pay farmers to not grow crops instead of encouraging them to create a surplus and just paying them the difference in the price drop?

The farmers are getting paid to do nothing ergo if you stop compensating them for doing nothing they will grow crops instead to make up for the difference. The government is whole reason this scenario is messed up in the first place.