Down with low flow shower heads!

[Tempest]

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I do agree with you that farm subsidies should go, but lobbyist has a lot to do with supply and demand. Farmers will pay for lobbyists to buy special treatment (via campaign contribution, ads, etc) and that is a form of advertisement that influence demand and supply in the market place (as in voters opinion as well as politicians'). You are kidding yourself if you think this has nothing to do with the market. If it is central planning, government would be forcing farmer to grow something due to water usage, instead of farmer asking government to reduce prices of water.

If you believe that the purchasing of politicians to enact policies in favor of particular people is part of a free market, then I really don't know what else to say on this matter.

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Rice is cheap but it uses a lot of water, but I'm sure no one want a supermarket that sells only strawberries and no rice / wheat / corn, so why do you use this as a yard stick to measure what is "efficient"?

Maybe grow it in areas / countries with more water? Do subsidies on water increase or decrease incentives to use water more responsibly?

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what would market economy do to magically solve the problem of dry spell

Prices would go up if demand is the same.

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how market economy would determine how much water to flow into the ocean for free vs selling to the farmers.

I assume you are talking about rivers?

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: Tempest
If you believe that the purchasing of politicians to enact policies in favor of particular people is part of a free market, then I really don't know what else to say on this matter.

It is as free market as the existing legal system allowed. I'm not in favor of it but you cannot deny that this is what is going on right now, so unless you have laws that ban lobbying, this is what you have to work with at the moment.

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Maybe grow it in areas / countries with more water? Do subsidies on water increase or decrease incentives to use water more responsibly?


You assume that by stop growing water demanding crops, the land and water will be suitable for other use (i.e. like growing the same acreage of strawberry or orange), or you can do so instantly (i.e. you plan orange trees today and 1 year later you'll harvest orange, with profits) to compensate for the volatility of the rain fall.


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Prices would go up if demand is the same.


and how fast can farmer and industrial users adapt to the sudden change in water cost?

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I assume you are talking about rivers?


Yes, do we charge the ocean to compete with farmers on how much water to allow into the river then the ocean?