Ray Burley is caught in the cost/price squeeze.
‘Why do they bury dead farmers only two feet deep?’ asks the farmer. ‘So they can still get their hand out...’
It is gallows humour, the kind of canary-in-the-coalmine commentary used by race comedians. Many farmers tell the story because they want to pre-empt what they believe the rest of society is already thinking. It is also has the echo of the bittersweet hopelessness of bluegrass music.
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