Being a rural peasant farmer in a region with an undiversified economy can be very bad. Within people’s living memory rural peasant farmers in many parts of the

Being a rural peasant farmer in a region with an undiversified economy can be very bad. Within people’s living memory rural peasant farmers in many parts of the world were literally starving. Rural peasants have been getting screwed by wealthy local aristocrats since the beginning of agriculture thousands of years ago. Peasants have their wealth stolen, get pressed into forced labor, get killed or raped on a whim, have their agricultural output seized while they don’t have enough food for themselves, have their land stolen and given to someone more powerful or better connected, .... But the big outward migrations from rural places come when there is massive population growth but no commensurate growth in jobs. People’s choice ends up being to either starve or move. The first stop is the nearest big city.