Read about the Victorian workhouse, the Irish potato famine, and Rawanda in the 1990s. In the latter example, the average person had less than a backyard worth

Read about the Victorian workhouse, the Irish potato famine, and Rawanda in the 1990s. In the latter example, the average person had less than a backyard worth of land to work on for subsistence. Jared Diamond discussed the case of Rawanda in his book, Collapse. Joseph Tainter provides many examples in his book. It has happened before, just not within the limits of experience of those living through all of the exponential growth we have lived through, so it is hard to imagine. From a summary of the relevant chapter: “In the Northwest Rwandan region of Kanama, population densities were higher than in Bangladesh, the most crowded nation on Earth. With nowhere to move and set up a home, most women and all men in their early 20s lived with their parents, putting further loads on each tiny farm until the average person lived off one-seventh of an acre. By 1990 40% of Rwandans were consuming calories below famine levels.” https://www.supersummary.com/collapse/part-3-chapters-10-13/ https://www.supersummary.com/collapse/part-3-chapters-10-13/