[randomdata]

> The ideal of the small, self-sufficient, productive and profitable family farm is just that, an ideal and to a large extent a myth.

Depends on your debt load. My small farm is now sufficiently profitable with most of its debts paid off. If you are carrying massive debt like many farmers you need to grow bigger and bigger just to eke out a small margin as most of the potential profits are handed away to creditors.

It also depends on what you want. Often farmers purposefully drown themselves in debt in order to have amassed extensive wealth later in life. They could keep a tidy "mom and pop" business but want more. It's a question not unlike that faced in tech: Do you aim for nice little business that keeps you comfortable or try to blow up to be the next FAANG?

The profitable small farm is common enough, particular among the older generations who have their debts paid off, but, of course, those who remain small are much less visible. The casual onlooker only notices the big farmers with the big equipment, big buildings, and big acres. That no doubt skews perceptions.

[SlickNixon]

>The profitable small farm is common enough, particular among the older generations who have their debts paid off

The purchase of said farms and the paying off of said debts wouldn't happen to be enabled by a long career in tech by said older generations, would it?

[randomdata]

My farm has been enabled by tech. Certainly I see many doctors, lawyers, etc. down at the grain elevator playing the same game.

However, what I was referring to is that many older farmers just slogged through many years of making nothing until the debt was paid off. Not a whole lot different to what the indebted younger farmers are doing, as described in my previous comment, just that they're 40-50 years deep into the process and now sitting on that wealth.