Funny that we imagine small farmers as weak & inferior, to be preserved, if at all, only for sentimental reasons, but with respect to net yield per-acre, they're overmanned & overimproved & overequipped if anything relative to their modest holdings. Large-scale farms only outyield small farms *once* the heavy capital outlays for irrigation & distribution are assumed as *given,* and even then, their net yield to nothing.
I'm sure all the folks camped in tent cities beneath freeway overpasses would prefer steady, labor-intensive work in the fields over bullshit jobs.
Many confusions, here. Taking 'output' alone is like counting tree trunks to gauge a forest's health—while the dying understory & brittle monoculture escapes notice. Just about every court-propaganda economist leans on the fixed-weight INDPRO that overweights legacy, capital-heavy durables & undercount emergent high-value niches—the deeper supply-chain attrition remains, again, unseen.
Regarding the education point/skill transferability, I remember a great anecdote about from my liberal arts college, where the person who also completed the degree at the same liberal arts college, explained that one major benefit of the education they got at the college was the ability to shift from very wildly different - sports to management to administration, which was thanks to the liberal arts education.
Today, I still see a lot of posts criticizing the concept of liberal arts studies as 'not focused' or 'unemployable', but in the long run of one's career, I think a broad education is necessary.
Great letter. You are definitely right about mobility. That is the largest issue to date. It also persists in other western countries also. The problem in my eyes is congress will never pounce on it and states will not collaborate to resolve it on their level.
The solutions are out there the issue is getting people to move forward with it.
Funny that we imagine small farmers as weak & inferior, to be preserved, if at all, only for sentimental reasons, but with respect to net yield per-acre, they're overmanned & overimproved & overequipped if anything relative to their modest holdings. Large-scale farms only outyield small farms *once* the heavy capital outlays for irrigation & distribution are assumed as *given,* and even then, their net yield to nothing.
I'm sure all the folks camped in tent cities beneath freeway overpasses would prefer steady, labor-intensive work in the fields over bullshit jobs.
Many confusions, here. Taking 'output' alone is like counting tree trunks to gauge a forest's health—while the dying understory & brittle monoculture escapes notice. Just about every court-propaganda economist leans on the fixed-weight INDPRO that overweights legacy, capital-heavy durables & undercount emergent high-value niches—the deeper supply-chain attrition remains, again, unseen.
Great description of the issue.
Regarding the education point/skill transferability, I remember a great anecdote about from my liberal arts college, where the person who also completed the degree at the same liberal arts college, explained that one major benefit of the education they got at the college was the ability to shift from very wildly different - sports to management to administration, which was thanks to the liberal arts education.
Today, I still see a lot of posts criticizing the concept of liberal arts studies as 'not focused' or 'unemployable', but in the long run of one's career, I think a broad education is necessary.
Great letter. You are definitely right about mobility. That is the largest issue to date. It also persists in other western countries also. The problem in my eyes is congress will never pounce on it and states will not collaborate to resolve it on their level.
The solutions are out there the issue is getting people to move forward with it.