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A recent article [0] draws an interesting comparison with the aftermath of the Black Death in England. Briefly, peasants just refused working the aristocracy-ow

A recent article [0] draws an interesting comparison with the aftermath of the Black Death in England. Briefly, peasants just refused working the aristocracy-owned fields. No matter the (harsh) countermeasures, the situation just never went back to the pre-plague levels. As a result, the aristocracy had to sell some of the fields to the richer farmers, resulting in a much strenghtened middle class. [0] https://prospect.org/labor/great-escape-why-workers-quitting-pandemic-trauma/ https://prospect.org/labor/great-escape-why-workers-quitting... via https://pluralistic.net/2021/11/29/ordinance-of-labourers/ https://pluralistic.net/2021/11/29/ordinance-of-labourers/

foxhop 5y ago
Bill and Melinda's Trust has locked up the majority of farm land in USA. The peasants are screwed. The middle class is gone. People think more monoculture with machines is the answer. Technology will never supplant nature, but it might cause a collapse & reboot. You can't eat AI, you can't eat a digital twin market model. Local food economy is the real economy.
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  >Bill and Melinda's Trust has locked up the majority of farm land in USA. source? https://newspunch.com/billionaire-globalist-bill-gates-suddenly-becomes-americas-biggest-owner-of-farmland/ https://newspunch.com/billionaire-globalist-bill-gates-sudde... This article says the Gates' or their foundation might have a few hundred thousand acres, but the USA has orders of magnitude more farmland. https://stacker.com/stories/1578/states-most-farmland https://stacker.com/stories/1578/states-most-farmland
  - jd3 5y ago
    I remember reading about this on HN earlier in the year — according to LandReport, "[t]he cofounder of Microsoft and his wife rank as America’s largest private farmland owners." https://landreport.com/2021/01/bill-gates-americas-top-farmland-owner/ https://landreport.com/2021/01/bill-gates-americas-top-farml... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25779681 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25779681 I think the gotcha here is that they rank as the largest /private/ farmland owners, not the largest singular owner of farmland (including corporate farming conglomerates). I think this story went "viral" through this BusinesssInsider article from May 2021. https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-land-portfolio-biggest-private-farmland-owner-in-america-2021-1 https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-land-portfolio-bi...

foxhop 5y ago

Bill and Melinda's Trust has locked up the majority of farm land in USA. The peasants are screwed. The middle class is gone. People think more monoculture with machines is the answer. Technology will never supplant nature, but it might cause a collapse & reboot. You can't eat AI, you can't eat a digital twin market model. Local food economy is the real economy.

lotsofpulp 5y ago
>Bill and Melinda's Trust has locked up the majority of farm land in USA. source? https://newspunch.com/billionaire-globalist-bill-gates-suddenly-becomes-americas-biggest-owner-of-farmland/ https://newspunch.com/billionaire-globalist-bill-gates-sudde... This article says the Gates' or their foundation might have a few hundred thousand acres, but the USA has orders of magnitude more farmland. https://stacker.com/stories/1578/states-most-farmland https://stacker.com/stories/1578/states-most-farmland
- jd3 5y ago
  I remember reading about this on HN earlier in the year — according to LandReport, "[t]he cofounder of Microsoft and his wife rank as America’s largest private farmland owners." https://landreport.com/2021/01/bill-gates-americas-top-farmland-owner/ https://landreport.com/2021/01/bill-gates-americas-top-farml... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25779681 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25779681 I think the gotcha here is that they rank as the largest /private/ farmland owners, not the largest singular owner of farmland (including corporate farming conglomerates). I think this story went "viral" through this BusinesssInsider article from May 2021. https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-land-portfolio-biggest-private-farmland-owner-in-america-2021-1 https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-land-portfolio-bi...