3 ms·

If that was true, they would stay as subsistence farmers. If they are not doing that, they must have their reasons (probably that you're wrong and they're makin

• fipar 8y ago
  That assumes they have a choice, which may not be the case.
  • xapata 8y ago
    It's the opposite problem in China. Too many farmers want to be industrial laborers. They have strict control (relative to other countries) preventing farmers from moving to cities. While totalitarian, it makes sense to reduce the speed of urbanization. Switching from agrarian to industrial is very disruptive. You don't want too many unemployed laborers in your cities.
  • zaroth 8y ago
    Mass slavery would be a problem of a different order, and not really relevant to the economic discussion I think?
    • jschwartzi 8y ago
      It's not necessarily slavery. If your hometown used to be a farm town, but a bunch of companies buy up all the farmland and convert it to factories and warehouses, you now no longer have a choice but to work in those factories and warehouses unless you move. And the cost of living increases because there's more competition for the same amount of living space because there's a bunch of engineers and management that are now living in the area where before it was just farm laborers and farmers. You might be getting paid the same as you were when you were farming but it's not stretching as far because everything else is more expensive.
      • xapata 8y ago
        That's not what happened in China, as far as I know.