This is a law passed by the Nazis in 1933 that designated all farms under 300 acres as “erbhofe” or hereditary farms that were guaranteed to remain in the family’s hands for perpetuity.
The family farm used to be the bedrock of American life. Over the last 50 years, giant agricultural multinational conglomerates have bought the vast majority of farms and consolidated them; and now they run them like the massive Fortune 500 operations they are, using minimum wage labor imported from Mexico and farm equipment Made in Japan (where all the shareholders reside).
The few remaining family farms in America were slated for extinction by the recent “fiscal cliff” resolution that reduces the exemption on inheritance taxes to $3 million from $5 million, with no additional exemption for family farms.
By comparison, family farms in Nazi Germany were passed on to the next generation with zero inheritance taxes. Moreover, the family farm was exempt from bankruptcy or any other legal action that could remove the farm from the family’s ownership.