General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: FiveThirtyEight: Manufacturing Jobs Are NEVER Coming Back. [View all]bhikkhu
(10,732 posts)90% of the US population was involved in farming in 1790, which is to say a farming family produced only a little more food than they needed back then. Draft animals, better plows, then tractors, then a whole myriad of huge expensive harvesters and combines and so forth...the percentage dropped steeply and steadily for two centuries down to a current 2.5% or so. Each farming family nowadays produces enough for about 200 families.
And based on the economy of more efficient production, food costs have followed steadily down. If you think about what people did instead of farming, when so many farmers were no longer necessary, think about the boom in production of material goods - people wanted stuff. If you imagine a day when so many people aren't needed to produce all those material goods any more, think - what else do people want.