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I know a high school graduate who drives Uber part-time for a living and bought a brand-new Tesla with no downpayment recently (i.e. at elevated interest rates)

• DrSiemer 2y ago
  Anekdotal outlier. In 2022 there were 42,600 registered Tesla owners in the Netherlands. It's a luxury expense, no matter how you turn it. Besides, it was just an illustrative way of saying "plenty of farmers are pretty well off". A bit silly to focus on that part of my argument instead of the actual point, which is that most Dutch people feel those big earners are the bigger problem.
  • slily 2y ago
    Sure. But I've never seen any evidence that small farmers aren't aligned with the protests. Is there any, or are the wealthy farmers simply a convenient target?
    • DrSiemer 2y ago
      Smaller farmers generally work hard for small margins. They are easily mobilized by the big agricultural companies that hide behind them. Whatever measures are taken should, in my opinion at least, focus on the highly automated mass polluting bio industry and subsidize smaller, eco- and animal-friendly businesses instead. The massive food surplus clearly leaves plenty of space to trim down a bit. The resulting CO2 decrease might even allow a few new houses to be built.
      • slily 2y ago
        That's a completely different conversation from the broad condemnation of protests that affect all farmers based on the premise that farmers shouldn't be able to afford nice things.