Com : oldman : I'm constantly amused at the lack of understanding people have about the Amish and the big question of why don't they use tractors. Amish are community minded people. Their goal is to look after themselves AND the fellow members of their community.

Thus, in their eyes, using tractors is the wrong route to take. Look at it this way: in the American style of agriculture, a farmer buys a tractor and works, say, a hundred acres. As soon as he can afford it, he buys a bigger tractor and leases another hundred acres. With the profits, he buys the leased hundred acres and leases two hundred more.

Now he needs a bigger tractor. Or two. As he increases the size of his farm and his machinery, his profit margin begins to shrink to the point where he suddenly finds himself forced to sell out to a large conglomerate that now hires him to be simply a semi skilled operator on the land he once owned.  the Amish view is this: a man needs enough land to feed his family and make a living to keep a roof over his head. Anything more is greed. So to use a tractor promotes greed because the farmer then has to force others off their land and put workers out of work. To the Amish, a tractor isn't a path to Hell, the greed caused by being able to produce much more than what you need is.