The Rural Voice, 1987-10, Page 18DUMP
TRAILERS
The Grain Movers
10T or 12T
Walking tandem axle
10 or 12 ply tires
Round bale rack available
Come and visit us
on Machinery Row
at the IPM at Meaford
Dealer inquiries welcome
Van Eyl
Manufacturers of
Quality Farm Equipment
for 25 years
Hwy. 9, Clifford
519-327-8045
TIRES
w.
. . d,..
•
SALES & ERVICE
• Radials
• Rice tires
• Reg. tractor tires
• Truck tires
• Automotive tires
All makes in stock
ON FARM SERVICE
Willits
Tire Service
Lucknow
519-528.2103
16 THE RURAL VOICE
AIL
FREE ENTERPRISE:
A SLAVE TO CAPITAL?
There were many people in the
1970s and in this decade who won-
dered, as the Western world seemed to
be shifting to the left, if capitalism and
free enterprise would survive. They
needn't have worried. Capitalism, if
not free enterprise, seems stronger
than ever in the late 1980s.
Capitalism, according to my Funk
and Wagnalls dictionary, has two
definitions: (1) an economic system
in which the means of production and
distribution are mostly privately
owned and operated for private profit,
and (2) the possession of private cap-
ital and its resulting power.
There seems to be more emphasis
on capital in 1987 than ever before. A
farmer, for instance, could once get
into farming on a shoestring, and with
hard work and reasonable skills in
growing crops or raising animals he
could expect to earn a decent living
and retire to town with a nice nest egg.
Today, if a young person wants to
get into farming, he'd better have a
good bit of capital behind him (or
her). What's more, if he or she wants
to stay in business it's good to have
skills in crop propagation or husband-
ry but it's downright essential that he
or she knows how to manage money
(otherwise known as capital). Many
good farmers have in the past few
years gone through much grief be-
cause they were good at most aspects
of their operation but not at money
management. Even many who were
good with the books found themselves
in trouble when somebody changed
the rules of the game in midstream.
It's much the same situation in
small business. Someone operating a
store today must know the goods (be
they food or fashions or hardware) but
must also have a pleasant personality,
sales and promotion ability, and,
above all, be able to get the capital
needed and then manage it.
There just aren't many people who
can be good at all aspects of their
business, which is why chains are
taking over.
Let's face it, as it gets harder to
run a business, it puts more power in
the hands of the big operators. I once
knew a food manufacturer who said
that the first people to promote new
packaging regulations aren't govern-
ment officials but big manufacturers,
because they can absorb the extra
costs more easily than the little guys.
If it costs half a million dollars to
get into business these days, there
aren't many people who can, first off,
find the half million, and then manage
to keep juggling all the skills required
to keep a complex business operating.
Eventually one of the balls drops, the
new entrepreneur goes belly up, and a
big corporation takes over.
The recent television series, The
Politics of Food, showed some fright-
ening glimpses of the future. In one
episode, officials of Cargill Grain,
already one of the handful of compan-
ies that control world grain trade, sat
in a room looking at screens with
satellite pictures. They could zero in
on any field in the world and know not
only what was growing and how good
the crop was, but also the condition of
the soil in that field. That's the kind
of information available only to huge
multinational companies because it
takes a huge amount of money to
gather the information.
Yet the livelihood of individual
farmers around the world depends on
decisions made in that room. How
can a small farmer hope for fair deal-
ing with a company so large. a compa-
ny that sells him the goods he needs,
buys back his crops, and holds all the
trump cards about crop information?
Yes, capitalism seems healthy in
the late 1980s. But is free enterprise?
If huge multinational corporations can
make it nearly impossible for people
to start up enterprises of their own,
isn't it just as bad as if there were
government regulations to prevent it?0
KEITH ROULSTON, WHO LIVES NEAR
BLYTH, IS THE ORIGINATOR AND PAST
PUBLISHER OF THE RURAL VOICE.