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Originally Posted by ezrabrooks
Rup, heck with Beverly Hills... say you are a farming family, owning quite a bit of farm land, which, although used for ag, has sky rocketed in value... Estate tax really hurts then.
Ez
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Ez,
This thread has taken a different direction from where it started.
But since we're here, all I can say is that I agree with you about the plight of the "farm family"...or "family farm", however you say it.
Here in NY, so many dairy farms that have been in families for generations have gone out. It is so tragic to see my friends' tears when the auction comes and their herds are loaded on trailers. The stock goes to either another farm, if it has breeding, or to slaughter.
These animals were tended and loved each and every day of their lives.
It seems so sad to me, the "mom and pop" farms selling out because they can't possibly compete with the larger argi-biz operations a few states away.
I guess it comes down to markets and progress.
The same thing has happened when "big box" marketers come along and main street's little stores become vacant when folks go just outside of town to make their purchases. The shopping malls occupy what once was a corn field.
The empty farms remain, as do the empty stores. All the effort over all the years is gone in an anguished moment. Gavel down.
Then the kids try to hang on to whatever value remains. The estate tax takes away the little that is left.
Times have changed. The fields are subdivided for second home development by shrewd people that never knew what it was like to help that little heifer give birth to her first calf at 3 AM on a snowy night.
Yup, times have changed.
DTS