NPR does the typical erroneous portrayal of the Amish here.
Don't get me wrong, there's some scary stuff going on in the financial world and if Amish farmers are making their mortgage payments and that contributes to the banks staying solvent, I don't mind hearing about it!
That said, this piece so distorts reality that it should never have made it past the editor's desk in it's current form.
The producers of this piece submitted wholeheartedly to the old canard that the Amish are somehow impervious to the things that effect the non-Amish. The message was unmistakable, (stability vs. chaos).
Convenient omission number one. Over 50% of the Amish in Lancaster county aren't farmers. What about their mortgages or incomes?
Omission number two, the money that pays off the loans for the farms? Where do you think it comes from? Let me let you in on a little secret, it's not because people are paying $20.00 a gallon for bessie the cow's milk! Simple fact, the money that pays off the farm is not being generated on or by the farm!
The money that's paying for those Amish farm mortgages is coming from tourist trinkets, quilts, manufacturing jobs, construction jobs, if the general economy goes south, so will those Amish loan payments.
The implied message of the article is that the Amish aren't effected by the financial crisis the way the rest of society is. Whenever they're covering the Amish the media reaches for this theme like a drug addict reaching for a crack pipe, they absolutely, positively, can't help themselves.
There was a time when an agrarian life to some extent shielded the Amish from western culture's convulsions. The violence on campuses and civil rights protests during the sixties, or earlier labor disputes that got really ugly are examples, of what one could say, the Amish took a raincheck on.
But they're not isolated anymore. It will be of little consequence how well they or their bank is doing at this point, if our economy implodes there's no way those Amish farm loans won't be adversely effected.
So exactly what was this story about?
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3 comments:
You're absolutely right on this one, Easy. The writer of that piece talked to one banker who fed the city slicker a line. I know lots of Amish who have gotten into financial trouble. They may not take out loans to buy iPods, but they operate their businesses on debt, just like every business, and they get over-extended, just like every other business. It is a shame to see such shallow reporting.
Let's say a worst case scenario unfolds in the next couple years. The only thing holding the economy up is massive government spending. Guess what? The Amish and government spending, are for the most part, like oil and water.
Where does that leave them? Kind-of-like out in the cold if you ask me.
Yeah, Missed the story alright.
By the way, if this is authentic, http://twitter.com/HotAmishChick
is western culture about to have itself a 21st century "little house on the prairie moment"?
She's not Amish
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