Post-Agricultural Society

During the Depression many businesses will die, many households will become impoverished or dissolve. The rest will recover. Is the damage done randomly, or are there discernable patterns to who is hurt most?

We would like to present a pet theory today. Our theory is that industrial society, in spite of so much that has only evolved in the past two hundred fifty years, is still largely agrarian in its outlook on economic life.

For example, take such concepts as the steady paycheck, the rent check, the interest payment, the dividend. All of these payments occur on a periodic basis. Yields on investments are calculated as annual returns on investment. All of these conventions derive directly from annual crop yields.

Where annual yields make perfect sense for agriculture, they may not for commerce and industry. It makes more sense for workers and investors to share in the profits of an enterprise, which are uncertain both in timing and quantity. Instead of accepting the variability of the industrial way of life, society has attempted to pound the round peg of industrialism into the square hole of agriculturalism. The results have not been happy. More job and tax 'farms' and 'gravy trains' have been built than can be supported. The imminent disappointment of many auto worker pensioners is testimony to this fact.

If you can thrive with an uncertain yet dynamic income stream, you are more in tune with the realities of the industrial system. If you are a 'rent seeker' or looking for a steady job, you are chasing a fading way of life.