Only 1/3 of US ag is subsidized, but its a disgrace. The programs damage the environment, cheat consumers, and pay the wealthy. Off the top of my head, the major program crops are corn, wheat, soy beans, cotton (!), milk, peanuts, and sugar.
"in 2005, farms with average household incomes of $200,000 per year accounted for 9 percent of all farms but received 54 percent of government payments."
Or if we just had competition in health care. It's illegal in America to sell health care insurance across state lines, for example. It's also illegal for associations to buy group health care. One could imagine a competitive market where you could shop for insurance online nationwide, and where groups like Y Combinator or university alumni associations could offer insurance to members (getting the price benefits of scale that individuals can't get). That's John McCain's approach. U.S. tax policy is the reason health care is employer-provided-- that's what we need to fix, not expand the government's role in the system.
Agreed. I quit a good job at a major company to join a venture-funded startup in 2000...obviously my timing was terrible and the startup went under within a year. The result was devastating personally and financially. I'm just now to the point where I have enough savings to try again...but at the same time I've rebuilt my career. It is really, really hard to walk away from a good paycheck again, especially since the economy looks like recession in 2008. So I work on things on the weekends.
More here: http://www.freetrade.org/node/609
"in 2005, farms with average household incomes of $200,000 per year accounted for 9 percent of all farms but received 54 percent of government payments."