Farming is a risky business.

WELCOME TO BRISBANE AFFORDABLE RENTALS, YOU ARE INVITED. IN THIS BLOG, WE WILL DISCUSS RENTAL PROBLEMS THAT WE MAY INCOUNTER WHEN RENTING, AND THE PROBLEMS OF RUNNING AFFORDABLE RENTALS. 

Anyhow, the farmers' problem in this article is similar to the rental problem that we have today, because the social security system can help both, if the assets test is modified. So, we are writing several articles, where we will talk about the rental problems and the Social Security System. 

This blog can be found at this link, http://affordablerentals.blogspot.com/))

And here are other links to our internet articles

http://menfranco-re.blogspot.com/, http://manneedsgod.blogspot.com,  http://menfranco.blogspot.com, 

http://ifyoubelieveingod.blogspot.com/, http://genzanoit.blogspot.com/, 

https://sites.google.com/site/prayersofreconciliation/,https://sites.google.com/site/menfrancoreconciliation/

This article can also be found at this link, Farming Today Is Still a Risky Business. 

We want you to see this photo, to show you how hard it is to live in the farms when there is a drought. Look at this piece of land it is so dry, there is nothing left for the animals to eat, no farm animal can live here for long, unless you hand feed and water them manually. When things like this happen, it is very hard for the farmers to survive. So, it would be good, if the Social Security System would help them. 

Welcome to our article, Farming Today Is Still a Risky Business. 

Dear readers, we are writing about social issues that effect our way of life, and this is blog, No. 2. 

 (This article was published the first time in August 2018)

Australia farming and their present problems.

Dear readers, in our previous article we have talked about the farmers, and because they were doing well everybody was also doing well, but things change and today farmers are havung problems. So, let us see what they are, in this article, “Farming Today Is Still a Risky Business”. Today everybody is talking about the drought that is ruining farming and there is no end in sight. Now I want to say that I am writing this article for two reasons: One is to talk about the farmers problems that the drought is causing, and the failure of the government to help them; when they know that these things happen in Australia easily, because Australia is the driest continent on earth.

Now, this farmers problem gives me the opportunity to talk about the Australian government failure to help the farmers and other people, because they are in the same position as the farmer, according to the present, Social Security System, which I believe can be improved from the present government.

Now, let me explain, the farmers and some other people are cut off the Social Security System, because they own properties, so, the assets-test eliminate them to receive help, even when they need help like the farmers today. So, this article is going to be the first article, followed by several other articles about the Social Security System and Australian politician’s failure to help people in need.

We may argue that the farmers are rich people, so, they must be the last people to receive money from the government. Okay, you are right; but when the farmers reach a stage, where they cannot run their farms anymore, because they have no money; I believe that the government should step in and help them, even if it is a free loan, to be paid back when the farms produce enough, and they are able to pay back that loan. This is only a suggestion, and there are other ways that the government can help.  

I believe that what is happening to the farmers today, it has happened before, so, I want to point out that this is the same old failure that most governments have. You see, what is happening in Australia now, brings back my life-time memories, which are two folds: one is that farming is a risky business, because the nature of farming is risky, since the weather and other things influence the outcome, as we can see from this drought that today is crippling the Australian farmers; the other is about how the government fails to help the farmers even today, when help is urgently needed.

I believe that today we are more advanced, so, these things should be easier to understand and control, if everything can be worked out and organized, before these things happen. Now, I may have started to write this article for the farmers, but there are other things and places that the government is failing to do the right things, so, I will be writing several articles, to point out what I believe can be done to fix them; but let us go back to talk about the farmers.

Anyhow, I want to compare what I know from my life experiences, to what is happening now in Australia. I must say that it is like when I was young, the Italian government wanted only to collect the land tax from us farmers, because we owned some land, even when the land did not produce anything; they still wanted the land tax, and that was hurting us farmers. You see, we old people will always go back and compare present happenings to the past and then have our say, therefore, let me tell you part of my life story, to compare the past with the present.

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Compare old and new farming problems. 

 When I was young, I have been working in our family farm in Southern Italy for twelve years, I gave up farming because we worked hard but made very little money. During the time that I was working in the farm, I remember two very bad years for us famers; one of this was in 1951 when we had a drought and the wheat and other crops completely failed. We harvested what we could, but there was no much in it; the second time was in 1960, this time was too much rain, we again harvested what we could with the same result, we made about twice as much as the seeds we used for sowing, now that is bad because a good harvest is ten times plus what you sow, at least that is what we believed then. Anyhow, also the farm animals did not do well, because there wasn’t enough good food to go around; so, these events made me think to give up farming, since it is too risky, and sometimes you work for next to nothing.

But not all farms were the same, so, let me explain, some people that had more land and more money than us, had enough money to keep going, but I could not do that because my family didn’t own enough land, so, I had to find another way to earn a living. For this reason, I migrated to Australia hoping for the best. In Australia I switched job and instead of farming, I worked in the building industry; but in the back of my mind, I always thought about the farmers and their risky business.

Anyhow, most people in Australia were and are thinking that farmers are rich people; well, some of them are rich and some are not, when everything goes well, it is okay, but they are still running a risky business, and their business can lose money easily.

Now, the worst part of running a business and losing money; it is when people think you are rich, and therefore, nobody cares about you, even if you are starving. As it happens, farmers are at the top of this disadvantaged list, because farming is very risky; you see, most time it depends from the weather, but the farmers have no control over the weather, then, they own a lot of land, (they might even be paying tax because they own this land, (like we did in Italy in the fifties) but I don’t know much about this issue). The farmers are self-employed, so, they don’t qualify for help from the government, because they are self-employed and because of the assets-test. I believe that the assets-test should not apply in special cases, if you cannot make any money even if you work hard to earn it, the assets-test should not apply. I believe that this is what is wrong with the assets-test today, they don’t consider if you can make money, from what you have? And how much money you can make from your assets. I belive that the ASSETS TEST must be changed, to be fair to people that need to be helped. We are going to say more about the assets-test later, where we will be talking about the assets test for rental property owners. To do all this, we are going to write several articles, so, we invite you to follow us.

Now let me go back to the farmers issues because life problems never come alone. You see, it is the federal government that can help the farmers, but the federal government is having trouble today, as we will explain.

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Life problems never come alone. 

Anyhow, I am writing what is happening to the farming people in Australia, because there is this drought problem. So, the farmers need help, it is too much for them to keep going the way it is. I believe that they are not being helped enough from the government when the government can do more to help them. But as it often happens, our lives problems never come alone; so, troubles can increase other existing troubles, even when they don’t belong to the original trouble.

Anyhow, what I am trying to say here is that the federal government must help the farmers, but today they have their own political problems, so, instead of trying to solve the farmers problem, the politicians fight each other, they want to elect a new Prime Minister, believing that it is the fault of the PM the reason that people are leaving their coalition party; they don’t see that it is the party policies that people don’t like, and one of this I believe it is the assets test, because it puts the farmers and other people in a disadvantaged position.

About the political scene, I believe that changing their leader is not going to solve their political problem, unless those people that will be in charge, change their policies. But that is not all, because also, what I am trying to say here is what, senator Richard Di Natale, is talking about in this video, click the link to view.

Richard Di Natale flares up in the Senate - YouTube

OMG finally somebody is telling the truth. Wake up Australian politicians and think about the people that have voted for you first, it is your duty. Now, let us hope that this political problem is solved quickly, so that the politician can go back to work and solve the farmers problem, then solve the other problems. Anyhow, let me go back to talk about the farmers problem, since the farmer are neglected from the government.

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Farmers are neglected from the government. 

When we compare today farming to the past, today it is easier than it used to be, because of the progress we have made in farming; good farming practice helps everybody, the proof of how the farmers help is written in this article, Farming today compared to the old way, we wrote this article some time ago, and it explain the benefit that modern farming brings to the people. Because farming helps us all, a good government must care about the farmers; but today the farmers are neglected from the government.

Now, as we have said, today farming is still a risky business, when it should not be that risky. You see, we need the government to intervene and make laws that help the farmers when they need help. After all, it is the farmers that feed the people of Australia, because all the food is grown in the farms; so, it is necessary that the farmers are kept farming and continue to feed the entire population, if that cannot be done, then one day food can cost a lot more. So, let me explain how I see this farming situation.

Australia is a vast country, but at the same time it is the driest continent on earth, for this reason the Australian farmers must be organized in a way that they can survive, when a dry spell happens like it is happening right now. They cannot copy anybody else to solve their farming problems, when there is a drought or something else that affects farming, because nobody else has got a problem as large as Australia, so, we in Australia must be the first in the world to find a solution to this farming problem.

I believe that the Australian government must make laws, which will help the farmers survive and be able to bring their farm back to produce whatever they produce, when the drought is over. Now, here we are talking about the drought, but it should apply to other things as well, because farming has too many ups and downs, so, they need to be organized in such a way that when things go the wrong way, like the drought they are experiencing now; this new future set up that we are suggesting, will keep hardship to a minimum.

At this point of time, let us imagine what can be done, then make some suggestions.

 

We can suggest helping the farmers. 

Today the most important thing that the farmers must do is think how they can survive the drought, or anything else that puts their livelihood at risk. Here we must admit that most of the farmers are good at doing that, because farmers are practical people, but that may not be enough, to save all of them, as we can see from what is happening today. Therefore, we must think about a helping solution. Here we suggest that an organization that collect things from the farmers, when farming is doing well must be created, this is where the government can step in, by setting up a collective organization, which for instance collect every year a portion of the farms produce, or even some money when they are doing well, before taxing them to collect their tax. Then this government organization, will keep this tax-free reserve of food and money in reserve, which then, it can be freely distributed, when it becomes necessary to help those farmers in need.

Well, this only a suggestion that we have written here. But this thing is not even new; we are all familiar with the story in the Bible, when the Pharaoh of Egypt dreamed about the seven fat cows that then were devoured by the seven skinny cows. Joseph interpreted the dream that in the land of Egypt, there were going to be seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of famine. The Pharaoh got Joseph to organize a collection in the years of plenty, to be distributed on the years of famine, and thus Egypt survived the years of famine.

What happened in Egypt was a long time ago, and the earth seasons then were more regular than today, because they did not have global warming to deal with, this global warming is an extra problem that we have created ourselves, so, today and in the future, we must create things that can overcome this global warming problem. Meanwhile, we must be careful what we do; perhaps we should create more social security for everyone including the farmers. Now, let us talk about our present farming and other problems that we are having today. 

Australia is having problems. 

Anyhow, today what we want from the government cannot happen; because of what has happened in Canberra recently; since the federal government has had political problems; so, on the 24 of August 2018 they have replaced the Prime Minister; now the new PM. is Scott Morison, but he needs still to choose the other ministers and then swear them in, before they can talk about anything else. Anyhow, we can say here that today Australia is still the lucky country, because there are people that donate things, when people are in need; so, the farmer get some help that way. Thanks, God, for that!

Anyhow, meanwhile the farmers are praying for rain and praying that the people in Canberra will remember them, and then, do something about helping the farmers. Because, farming is a risky business even today, when things are easier to organize, for this reason, we need to look at the Australian security system to see who is responsible and what can be done.

I think I have said enough in this article, see you in our next article, where we will discuss about the Australian social security system that today is failing the farmers, but not only the farmers, because there are other people that can be served better. We believe that Australia can do better, if the Australian government can organize the resource better. 

I believe that we have said enough about this farmers problem, and the failure of the Social Security System, that is not helping them, and we will continue to write and publish more articles, hoping we can suggest something useful. 

So, see you in our next article, Australian Social Security  

To see more and the original article click on this link, Farming Today Is Still a Risky Business. 

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Farming today compared to the old ways.

WELCOME TO BRISBANE AFFORDABLE RENTALS, YOU ARE INVITED. IN THIS BLOG, WE WILL DISCUSS RENTAL PROBLEMS THAT WE MAY INCOUNTER WHEN RENTING, AND THE PROBLEMS OF RUNNING AFFORDABLE RENTALS. WE ARE DOING THIS, IN THE HOPE THAT OUR ARTICLES WILL HELP PEOPLE UNDERSTAN THE SITUATION BETTER. 

This blog can be found at this link, http://affordablerentals.blogspot.com/))

And here are other links to our internet articles

http://menfranco-re.blogspot.com/, http://manneedsgod.blogspot.com,  http://menfranco.blogspot.com, 

http://ifyoubelieveingod.blogspot.com/, http://genzanoit.blogspot.com/, 

https://sites.google.com/site/prayersofreconciliation/,https://sites.google.com/site/menfrancoreconciliation/

This article can also be found at this link, Farming today compared to the old way. 

In this article, we are comparing today farming life, with old time farming. So, let us start with this photo above, where is a show off of Harvester machine and how harvesting is done today. But we have to say that this photo is just an exaggeration, because it is too crowded with machines. Anyhow, wheat harvesting was a lot harder in the past. Also life was harder then. 

 

Welcome to our article, Farming today compared to the old way. 

Dear readers, we are writing about social issues that effect our way of life, and this is blog No: 1. 

Wheat farming the modern way. 

Now, let me explain, this article is an old article that was published the first time in 2012 in Hub Pages. So, you may find that a few things have changes since then. Anyhow, we will be posting several articles in the future to compare social issues, that can be negative or positive, and you can come back to this article to compare. 

Having said that let us see what I wrote then. 

Anyhow, today I want to talk about farming today compared to the old ways, because I can mentally see the great difference that it has made in our standard of living. So, I believe that today we are better off than we were before; but let me see how I can describe this difference. Anyhow, I am writing about my life story, so, I mentally compare the ways of life of today to the ways of life in the past when I was young; for this reason, I have become aware that there is a great difference; in fact, the difference is so great that it is worth writing an entire article to explain my personal point of view.

Anyhow, we must acknowledge that this modern wheat farming in Australia, and in other parts of the world, it has slashed the present cost of living a lot, and this helps us to live a better life. We believe that this has happened because of the new farming machines available to the farmers, and the fertilises available to them; so, farmers are able to produce wheat and other produce a lot cheaper than in the past, so, food has become cheaper, therefore, we are better off today in many ways.

In this article, we invite our readers to compare how different farming and farming life was at the time when I was young in the fifties, and, how hard was life then because most of us had to work hard just to earn enough to feed ourselves and our families.

This difference that we are talking about applies to the farmers and the public as well, because today it affects both in a beneficial way. So, there is a lot to be said about this great difference in cost and hardship or easiness, and this has happened during my life timelifetime. So, I believe that our standard of living has improved a lot, at least in the sense of being able to feed ourselves with wheat and other farm products, because the cost of farm products are more affordable today than in the past; so, let us compare the cost of living, perhaps for the sake of seeing where we have come from and how much we have improved since then.

Today we often wonder how easy it is to grow and harvest wheat, at least it seems so when we look at a video that shows harvest time in the wheat farms, we see a few harvester machines in a field collect the wheat in no time at all, and because of this speed of these wonderful combine harvester machine food is a lot cheaper today than it used to be; of course these machines are only part of the machinery that helps the farmers produce the wheat, because there are many more machines required. So, let us talk about some other machinery that the farmers require.

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Some farmers' machinery. 

(Dear readers to view the farmers' machinery we are talking about, click on this link to visit our Hub Pages article,  Farming today compared to the old way.)

Now let us talk about the farmer’s machinery and the benefit that has come from them; of course, this is due to the industrial revolution that has started a long time ago, and last century has reached the farming communities improving it a lot. It seems to me that the farming sector has been one of the last communities that has benefited from the industrial revolution, anyhow, that doesn’t matter how it has worked out, because today we are better off, so, let us talk about these machines.

We can say that the most important machine in the farms is the tractor, as this machine can be used in all sorts of farming, in wheat farming the tractor is followed by the harvester machine and other devices to till the soil and to sow the seeds, and all these machines put together make farming a lot easier today, therefore, wheat can be produced a lot cheaper, this of course helps keep the price of bread and other wheat made products down, since wheat is the main food elements required in the western world to prepare food, therefore, this new way of farming helps a great deal just about everybody, since wheat is one of the main ingredients to make foods for us to eat, and we require lots of it.

Of course, if we want to talk about farming there is more to say than just wheat farming, because there are many other things that the bloke on the land can produce, see this link here-under how Wikipedia explains farming.

Agriculture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dear readers, now that we have talked about these farmer’s machines, let us talk about wheat farming and the great benefit that we get from it; we must be happy about what is happening because it is a good thing for all of us; so, we want to point out that there is a great difference in the ways of living, and we are a lot better off today than we were when I was young, so, let us compare some of the benefits that we have achieved, since today the farmers can use these farm machines that the industrial revolution has made for us.

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Let us compare these benefits.

Now, let us compare the great difference between today and the past. For comparison sake; today here in Australia there are a few places that a 600g loaf of bread costs you just one dollar, we know that this bread is sold at a very special price from these supermarket, in order to get the customers to the shop, but we wonder and we do not know how it can be done so cheap but they do it anyhow, this very low price of bread is possible only because the farmer can produce the wheat cheap for a start.

Then, because the wheat is cheap the price of bread can be cheap, the supermarkets make it even cheaper to attract customers, because the supermarkets have a price war to attract customers on bread and also on milk, so, we can buy a loaf of bread for one dollar and we can buy a two litre bottled milk for two dollars, that works out at one dollar per litre, again how they can do it I do not know, but they do it anyhow; so, there is plenty of cheap wholesome food around for us to enjoy, thanks to the farmers and the supermarkets. (We hope that this will last for a long time, but I have my doubts). Anyhow, I must point out that in the past, the price of bread and milk was a lot dear, in fact there have been times, when people were struggling to feed themselves, as we will explain before we finish writing this article.

But even though bread and milk is cheap beyond compare, there are people that still complain about the cost of living today, I know that what I am talking about here are only a few items and a lot more are needed to live well. But for comparison’s sake let us show you how easily we can afford to buy bread and milk to day, you see today, while I am writing this article for the first time, most people on the government old age pension in Australia receive about 700 dollars per fortnight, which would be about 50 dollars per day, they can easily afford to buy bread and milk and other food items.

Now that we have said how easy it is to buy bread and other staple food today, let us see how things were done in the past. You see, when I was young things were a lot harder than today, for sure we could not buy bread and milk as easy as we buy them today, because to produce these things took a lot more physical work than today, therefore, they were a lot more expensive, they were so because the way of producing them was different, in order to show you what we mean, we are going to describe how wheat farming was done at the time when I was young, and how hard it was for some people just to have something to eat, even if it was just a piece of bread and butter, bread and milk, or bread and tomatoes or other basic things that one could find in the fields if you were in the farms. Anyhow, let me describe how farming was done then, in this following sub-article, farming the old ways, so, we can have a better understanding of the whole issue, and be able to compare the past with the present way of farming.

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Farming the old way. 

Dear readers, to compare and explain how farming was done at the time when I was young, we are going to write here the way of farm life that was going on in those times; we know already that things have changed for the better since then, as we have written above, because of the tractor and new farming machinery that have come out since then, all due to the industrial revolution or progress; which we have experienced in the last hundred years or so, but when I was young there were a lot less advanced farming machine that could make farming easy, of course, the tractors were already there, but they were very expensive to buy for most of the small farmers, so, we had to do most things the old ways. Now let me tell you how life was in the farms of southern Italy in the early fifties and earlier.

It is a well-known fact that in those times and even now, there are two times during the year, when in the farms everybody is working hard and working very long hours; one of this was sowing time and the other is harvest time, let us start with sowing times. When I was young the working day at sowing time would start two hours before dawn, because we had to make the horses, mules and other animals ready for working in the fields, we had to feed them and water them as well, it had to be done in such a way that everything should be made ready to go into the fields at daybreak.

At that time of the year in the morning it was very cold and there are lots of frosty days, so, in the morning the outside temperature could be around zero or below, it is very hard then to harness the horses to the plough as everything one touches is so cold; but then when one gets going it is not so bad, because walking in the fields holding the plough in one hand and guiding the horses with the other hand is hard work and it makes one warm. This type of very hard work at sowing time goes on for about a month if the weather is good and perhaps it could be longer than a month. When the sowing is done then everything slows down again, but we had still to look after the farms’ animals and do other farming chores; see this article My farm life continues, where we describe what we did after sowing, and what we did during the winter time.

Now let us talk about harvest time, since this is the busiest time in the farms, because harvest time is when the farmers collect the fruits of their hard labour, so, there is no time to be wasted at harvest time, therefore, this was and is the most hectic time of the year for all the farmers, and it is a very worrying time too for the farmers, you see if something goes wrong all their work goes down the drain for the whole year, so to speak. Here we are talking about mostly how things were run in the farms when I was young.

Now let us say a few things about today farming, especially about wheat farming, because wheat is one of the most important produces that we need from farming, as we have already said at the beginning of this article. With wheat we make bread and pasta and other bakery products, therefore, it is the most important farm produce that we use. So, let us compare what is changed in wheat farming since I was young:

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Wheat harvest in the fifties. 

The following description is the way of wheat harvest time in the fifties. When I was young we had already a horse drawn harvester that was helping us, this early harvester was able to cut the wheat plants and tie them in bundles, so, we were already halfway down the track of progress, as this machine saved us a lot of work, because we did not have to harvest by hand, which is a very labour intensive job, as we are going to describe later in this article. Anyhow, at this time of the year everybody in the farm works hard and for very long hours, it is very hot and everything is very dry. We get up very early in the morning, we get the horses ready for working by feeding them and watering them, then we harness the horses and set them to pull the harvester, and off we go in the fields for another day of hard work, if everything goes well, we might be able to go over a ten-acre field just in one day with this harvester. The harvester needs two people to get it working, one drives the horses, and another regulate the harvester, the harvester goes around the field and leaves these bundles of wheat or other cereal, whatever has been sown in the field. Now these bundles of wheat will be collected in hips around the field from other people as soon as possible, the hips of these bundles of wheat are made is such a way that if it rains the rain would run off easily, these hips of wheat will be collected later when we finish with the harvester, perhaps in a week or two, then we will go back to the fields with a cart to take everything on a special plot near the farmhouse, where the trashing machine will be hired and set.

When we collect and cart everything to the farm house, we work very long days, we get up before 4 am, but we have a break of two or three hours at lunchtime because it is too hot to do anything, then we go back to work and between real work and looking after the animals we finish at dusk around 8 pm, after that we only have to feed the horses: this sort of work goes on for more than a month and sometimes up to two months, with no breaks at all seven days a week. Everybody in the farm works to their maximum and they are very tired, they are also very worried about the possible fire hazard, and also of any thunderstorms at this time of the year, since anyone of these happenings can destroy the whole crop, and a whole year of hard work can go up in smoke. So, we are all working hard, and at the same time we are praying God and waiting for the trashing machine to come and finish our harvest.

When some famer did not have a lot of wheat to trash, they could use a place in common with other farmers, so that, the trashing machine would not have to be set several times. The trashing machines that were around and we would hire together with other farmers came with a large crew, because it was a very large machine, bigger than the one shown in this article, it had a crew of about twenty people, it was a very interesting time when we were trashing our own wheat, oats, barley, etc. Because we were anxious to see how much wheat and other product we had made.

Now there were many other things that I could tell you, but I better not to make this story short. Anyhow, here I want to say that when one goes through these life experiences in the farm, one knows that farming life is hard; but since this is the only way to grow food to feed ourselves, we the farmers keep working in our farms to feed ourselves and the rest of the community.

So, we the farmers feel that it would be right if the rest of the community appreciates our efforts, so, they should be thanking us for all the hard work that we have done, after all, we are providing all those things that are necessary to makes food for the rest of the community; but it does not happen that way, because even when we are working our guts out, and while we are doing that we are becoming dull, the rest of the community does not care and they label us as dull people; their attitude hurts us very much and we believe that we don’t deserve that; just because we are farm people, but we have done our part of hard work for our own benefit and for the benefit of the entire community. So, we the farmers feel hurt to say the least.

This is how life was then in the small farms of Southern Italy. Anyhow, this town people attitude as I have said above, plus some very lean years when we hardly could survive, and because we had only a small farm and it would have been hard to expand was one of the reasons why I left farming and migrated to Australia. But anyhow let us continue to describe how harvesting was done the very old way, so, that we can compare it to today’s living.

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Harvesting the very old way. 

Now, before we end this article, because we want to compare the very old ways of farming with today farming, we need to say how harvesting wheat was done before my times; here we need to say that I have witnessed the last part of this old practice when I was young. You see, when I was young we were already using a horse drawn harvester, and it was very helpful; but there were people that had some small holdings and we had one of these ourselves, it was in a place, where it was hard to go with the harvester that we had, so, we had to use the old ways for harvesting our wheat for that small wheat field, because that was the only way to do it for one reason or another.

So, let me describe how harvesting was done in those old bygone days; at harvesting time strange as it may seem today, we could hire some specialized people that were good at using the sickle, these people usually went from town to town to do this seasonal harvesting job; we need also to explain that in Southern Italy because the terrain has different altitude the wheat reaches maturity at different times, this was helping these seasonal workers to have a longer span of work, now just to compare those very hard times with today times, I have to tell you that these workers were sleeping anywhere they could on a sack filled up with straws under a shelter if they could find one, as they could not afford anything else. In the morning they would get up early and wait in the town square hoping that somebody would hire them for the day.

Now let us say that we had a small plot about one acre and we could not use the harvester, because it was not possible to go there, we would hire four people and form a gang that could harvest one acre in one day and collect it in hips, that later would be taken on a cart to the farm house to be threshed one way or another.

In the old times anything that had grown in the field was collected, it needed to be collected for the people to survive, because the fields did not produce as much as they do today, because they could not be cultivated with our modern machines. You see, today we have the tractor to cultivate the fields and it does a better job than the horse drawn plough, we have many types of fertilizer to help us grow more wheat but let us go back to talk about very old harvesting times.

Wheat harvesting and trashing the very old time. 

Now I must say briefly how the older generations before my time used to thresh their harvests, to collect their produce. Now, let us suppose that it was a few bundles of wheat to be threshed one could even extract the wheat by hitting them with a stick, but let us say that we had a cartful, or many cartsful for that matter, then we had to use a different method, which is the way that most farm used in the very old times for centuries, before the trashing machine was invented, so, let me tell you how it was done.

I happen to know this procedure, because in the farms when I was young, we were still using this method with smaller crops, most likely broad beans, lentils, chickpeas, linseed, and other farm produce that were not meant to go through the wheat trashing machine. When we were doing this procedure of trashing these minor crops, the elder would always be telling us that this was the way that they used to collect their wheat as well and usually it took them a few months to collect all the season produce. So, now let me describe this to you, so that we can compare the difference.

In order to do this old trashing, first of all we needed to prepare a piece of ground that is very solid and smooth, this can be achieved by stripping the old dry grass on a piece of land that had a large clay content, then wet it with a little bit of water to make it compact; once that was ready we would place our wheat or whatever was to be threshed and collected on this clean ground, then we would get our horses mule and donkeys whatever animals were available and drive them around and around until everything was threshed. Of course, there was a lot more to say, but let us make it short otherwise it would become too boring.

Now, once the threshing was done we had to separate the produce from the straw and any other foreign matter, this was achieved by removing the straws from the top layer making sure that no produce was left with the straws, at the same time we would collect the bottom layer in a hip, once that was done we would have to clean that produce by using the wind, to take away the finer parts that were still mixed with the wheat or whatever it was, and there were many other things that we could use to get this wheat clean, by the end of the day we could have collected two or three hundred kilograms of produce, and when we did that we thought that we had done well for a day work.

In the very ancient times was even worse, see what they were using in the Medieval Times, here is a link to check out some ancient farm tools including the Flail and Winnowing Basket used to collect and clean wheat.

Medieval Farm Tools

I hope that this gives the modern reader a view of how thing were done in the old times, so, I do not want to say much more about how all this threshing and cleaning of the wheat was done, because even writing about it is boring today, but anyhow it needed to be done in those days, because that was the only way to collect our wheat to make bread and other things to eat. Now, my dear reader’s do you see how hard was then even to collect wheat for ourselves, so that we could make bread and other cereal product.

I hope I have been able to write something that really sets up the great difference of the ways of life that we were living then and the ways of life that we are living now, for this I want you to compare and judge for yourself how much better off we are today.

To the young people who think that today life is hard, let me describe what I have witnessed when I was young, because then life really was harder than today, you see those days everybody had to find how to earn enough to feed themselves there were no handover from the government. So, the very poor people of those days were trying to collect anything they could to feed themselves, as I have witnessed these things myself, so, let me describe this to you:

You see, at harvest time this is what I have witnessed, I have seen old and poor people mainly old ladies go around the fields and pick up any ear of wheat that was left behind in the fields, one ear of wheat here and another ear wheat there until they had the strength to go around, they did this each day until harvest time was over and there was nothing else to collect; and I tell you what these poor people were happy if in the end they had collected enough ears of wheat that they could trash and clean themselves, perhaps they could have collected enough to make 50 to 100 kilos of wheat during harvest time and they were happy because, they could make bread from this wheat and not go hungry for a few months.

Now I hope that you can see what I mean when I say that the youths of today don’t know anything about hard times.

Anyhow, I hope that today this abundance of cheap food lasts for a long time because things can change in the future. Today the climatic change is the worrying part because we don’t know how much it is going to affect the farms and our lives.  

I believe that this article is a positive article, since the farmers and everybody else  is doing well. But things can change and be negative, and this is what we will be talking about in our next article, which in this case will be about farming in Australia, with a negative twist in, Farming Today Is Still a Risky Business. 

To see more and our original article click on this link, Farming today compared to the old way. 

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THE RENTAL PROBLEM IN AUSTRALIA.

WELCOME TO BRISBANE AFFORDABLE RENTALS, IN THIS BLOG WE WILL WRITE BUILDING ARTICLES, HOW TO DO IT YORSELF BUILDING WORKS, WHICH CAN HELP TO KNOW WHAT TO DO, IF YOU WANT TO FIX THE HOUSE YOURSELF. WE WILL ALSO DISCUSS RENTAL PROBLEM THAT WE MAY INCOUNTER WHEN RENTING, AND THE PROBLEMS OF RUNNING AFFORDABLE RENTAL PROPERTIES. 

Here are some other links to our internet articles

http://menfranco-re.blogspot.com/, http://manneedsgod.blogspot.com,  http://menfranco.blogspot.com, 

http://ifyoubelieveingod.blogspot.com/, http://genzanoit.blogspot.com/, 

https://sites.google.com/site/prayersofreconciliation/,https://sites.google.com/site/menfrancoreconciliation/

This article can also be found at this link, Australia Rental Problems Can Be Solved. 

We believe that the rental problem in Australia can be solved, if the government charges on affordable housing is reduced. You see, today to have a rental business is not worth much, because of the exagerated charges they have to pay. Reduce those charges and there will be more affordable rentals. Anyhow, there are many other things that can be done to make rentals more affordable, some of which we will talk about it in this article. 

Welcome to our article, Australia Rental Problems Can Be Solved.

The people that are renting, complain that they cannot afford to pay the rent, and the landlords complain that it is hard to keep the rental properties going, because there is not enough money in this business anymore, and some of them have given up renting, bercause there are too many problems and not enough money.  So, this is becoming a real problem. What people do not not realize that the Australian rental shortage problem can be solved, if we do what needs to be done, after we pinpoint the reasons, why this is happening. Because in the past, if there was any rental shortage, it was not as bad as it is now. But I believe that the people in charge do not know what to do, or, they do not want to know what to do, because what needs to be done may favour the small investor, which is the middle class that nobody wants to know about, since they can look after themselves, if they are in a plain field, so, nobody cares about them, even though they are the people that make the economy work in a balanced way.

Anyhow, let us talk about the rental problem. These days, we can hear every day in the news, that there are a lot of people in Australia that cannot afford to pay their rent or buy a house or unit to live in. People believe that in the past it was easier to buy or rent, and I believe it myself that it was easier. So, in this article, we are going to discuss what could be the reasons, and if there are ways to improve the situation. To do that we need to compare what is different today, and if there are laws or by laws that make the rental properties more expensive to run, and therefore, it is harder for the property owners to rent their properties at a lower affordable price.  

Now what I am writing here is just common sense, that anyone should be able to work out. So, I wonder why the smart politician have not picked it up, what they are doing wrong, because I can see a few things myself that could make the rental situation better. In fact, I believe that to restore the rental affordability issue, it is a lot easier than most people think, it all depends, if the politicians do what they must do the right way, and they must not try to impress people just to gain a few votes, like what they are doing now, they want to tell the owner, that they cannot increase the rent of their properties, when for about ten years or more, the rent have not gone up like everything else, but the charges to run their property has. So, today the owners are forced to pass the entire charge increase, that they are asked to pay from the authorities in charge, and some of them ask the owners to pay, just because they need the money. We will say something about this hereunder.   

 

The rental affordability issues. 

 Having said that, now let us start discussing this affordability issues. We believe that in the past properties were more affordable, so, we must look at what has changed to understand the reasons. This is not easy to do since the Australian economy is a capitalist economy and free to run its own way. So, most prices are automatically set, from the supply and demand market, when there are not enough properties on the market the price will go up. When the prices go up, more properties will be built and come on the market, so, the market will go down, and it is self-balancing, and sometimes it is good, at other times it is not.

Anyhow, for me that I have followed the rental market for a while, I believe that in the past it was easier to rent or buy, but the greedy politicians have changed the laws, so, there are a lot more expenses today than in the past , in some cases 50% of the rent covers the bylaws charges levied on that property, therefore some property owners cannot make much money from their rental investment, for this reason people that were going to invest in properties, they do not see enough money coming in and they do not invest in properties. People need an incentive to invest their money on rental properties, or at least know that they are not going to lose their money if they buy rental properties. 

 Anyhow, it is a well-known fact that people with a lot of money, knowing that the rental market is risky, they keep away from it, so, it is up to the small investor, with limited money and struggling that invest in rental accommodations, but even these people are kept back from the never ending expenses, that the authorities levy on their property, not only that, but today while I am writing this blog, some politicians in Canberra are talking about limiting the rent increase that the properties’ owners can charge. Okay, it sounds good, and it might work for a very short time. But if they pass this law, then the few rental property owners left, may have to close their rental properties and there will be less properties for rent.

I believe that the government needs to think what they are doing, because if they want cheaper rent, then their levies on properties must come down a lot, it is outrageous that in some case, a rented house, may only earn one per cent of its value in a year, when everybody else make a lot more. Anyhow, there is very little money to be made in rental properties, but there are a lot of problems to run them. So, the few investors that are left wonder, if they will continue to stay on the market or sell out, if they can find a buyer. But it is very hard to find anyone because rental properties do not earn enough money to run them at a profit.

 

Some discussions on rental issues. 

Anyhow, I have called this article, Australia rental problems solved, so, in a way a have promised my readers that I can solve them, so, now I must come up with a theory, how the rental issues can be solved.

I believe that there are at least two choices, one, all the governments involved in rentals must chose, whether to build lots of affordable rentals themselves, and run them at no profit or at a loss, and this can cost several billions and may keep the government budget in the red for a long time.

The other way is that the government authorities charge less levies on rental properties and do other things that keeps the small investors interested in rental properties. So, let me tell you a couple of things that come to my mind.

Here I am talking about the small investors only, because I do not care if the rich people lose money. Anyhow, one of the charges that hurts most small investors in Queensland is the land tax. The land tax is a levy from the Queensland Government, these days, they charge $1.7 per thousand of the land value. So, a property that is on a block of land of ONE MILLION, will be charged, about SEVENTEEN THOUSAND DOLLAS, per year, then there are the Rates, the Urban Uility chages, the insurance, the maintenance of the building, and other charges. Now, you can see why rental properties are not worth keeping. The Queensland government may argue that they need the money of the Land Tax, but that is not helping the rental market, and it is driving the few small investors left away.

I believe that the government authorities do not care for the small investors, or anybody that owns a property, and they are treated in a way that makes me think they are discriminated, when they deserve better, to prove that, I am pasting an article I fount on the internet. (And I quote).

Public Trustee leaves pensioner without money for food and takes 40 per cent of his income

There's growing concern about the treatment of some of the country's most vulnerable people by a government body that manages their finances. In Western Australia, the public trustee charges higher fees to people with assets, even if they have little cash to spare. (End of quote).

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This behaviour of this government body above, it makes me think that most government bodies are like that. So, the small investor, would have been better off, if during his life, he would have spent his money to enjoy himself, instead of saving to buy a property investment, that in the end make his life harder instead of better.

 

 How we can solve these rental issues. 

Now let me go back to the rental problem. Apart what we have said above, the other thing that comes to my mind is that years ago, the assets test for pensioners sickness benefit and other, was 1.5 dollars per thousand, but today it is three dollars per thousand, so, a pensioner is deemed to earn $7.5 per cent, on their rental property value, when in fact, he may earn only one per cent. You see why I think that the small investor is in a disadvantaged position and is being discriminated.  

My view here is this. If the authorities want to save Australia from a huge debit by building lots of affordable rental accommodations, they can choose to abolish the assets test, not only on the house you are living in, but also on the first rental house or unit that is rented, or on the market for rent. This will keep some of the small investors in the rental market, and the problem is half solved. Anyhow, this is my view how the rental problem can be solved.

What I am suggesting here, is a possible way how to solve the rental problem for good, and will save the governments billions of dollars, because they may need to build fewer rental properties themselves.

You may say that what I have suggested will cost the government money. I know it will, but it will be a lot less than if they build all the affordable rental themselves.  

There is more that can be said, but I will say it next time I write something about rentals. 

To see more click on this link, Australia Rental Problems Can Be Solved. 

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