[vineyardmike]

America has lost over 50% of farms and farmers since 1900. Farming used to be a significant employer, and now it's not. Farming used to be a significant part of the GDP, and now it's not. Farming used to be politically significant... and not its complicated?.

If you go to the many small towns in farm country across the United States, I think the last 100 years will look a lot closer to "doom" than "bumps in the road". Same thing with Detroit when we got foreign cars. Same thing with coal country across Appalachia as we moved away from coal.

A huge source of American political tension comes from the dead industries of yester-year combined with the inability of people to transition and find new respectable work near home within a generation or two. Yes, as we get new technology the world moves on, but it's actually been extremely traumatic for many families and entire towns, for literally multiple generations.

[ethbr1]

Same thing with Walmart and local shops.

On the one hand, it brings a greater selection, at cheaper prices, delivered faster, to communities.

On the other hand, it steamrolls any competing businesses and extracts money that previously circulated locally (to shareholders instead).

[Maxion]

> it brings a greater selection,

Greater selection in one store perhaps, but over a continent you now have one garden shovel model.

[__alexs]

Farming GDP has grown 2-3x since the 1900s. It's just everything else has grown even more. That doesn't make farming somehow irrelevant work. There's just more stuff to do now. This seems pretty consistent with OPs point.

[vasco]

What does that matter that a lot of people were farming? If anything that's a good argument for not worrying because we don't have 50%+ unemployment so clearly all those farming jobs were reallocated.

[pzo]

This transformation back then took many many decades like few generations. People had time to adopt - it worked like this: as a kid you have seen family business was going worse, the writing was on the wall and teenagers pursued different professions. This time you won't have time to pivot different profession - most likely you will have not clue where to pivot to.