The '70s Back to the Land' Movement Had a Sound Idea
Impacts of an Agriculture-Only Economy
We shucked our city/suburban dwelling just after 2K and settled on this small farm in the swamp. No noise, no annoying neighbors, no bills, and absolutely no trouble during the scamdemic, outside of the toilet paper shortage. But that’s another story… - DD
The evolution of economies from agriculture to an industrialized system has prominently shaped modern society. However, what if the economy had only been based on agriculture?
In that case, the unemployment rates would not have varied as wildly as it does today. It would have affected various sectors such as the participation of men and women in the workforce, demand for nutrition based on population, and child labor. I will tell you why – and we don’t need to look far beyond. In pre-industrial Europe, male unemployment was estimated to be as low as 2-3% compared to the 8-12% seen during industrial downturns in the 19th and 20th centuries.
I know, you are probably wondering why we don’t have such great unemployment figures now, but that’s how the world has changed. And it’s interesting to think how things would have been otherwise. Sure, we may not have had an iPhone in our hands – but what was the trade-off?
Even today, smallholder farms do better when it comes to job creation than industrialized farms. Interesting, right?
We Would Have Had Lower Unemployment Rates for Men
If an economy is entirely based on agriculture, the role of men in the workforce will become limited due to the seasonal cycles of vegetation. I am emphasizing ‘men’ here since the agricultural economy was dependant on…