Increased inequality in rural America; Wonder how it is in rural Andhra Pradesh and India overall?
Rural America confronts a new class divide, http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2016/0730/Rural-America-confronts-a-new-class-divide, dated July 30th 2016
A few short extracts are given below:
“What most people think of as family farms don’t exist in large numbers anymore, but what exists are large family businesses … in the $3 to $5 million range,” says Mr. Peters, the Iowa State sociologist.
...
.. says Jonathan Bryant, a history professor at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, who studies small-town life in the South. “That’s become a difficult situation for a lot of folks, and many just leave. Those that don’t are the people you see in those clustered groups of rotting trailer houses: They’re stuck as much as some person in a Central American country is stuck.”
...
“We have seen this kind of inequality before, and it’s when we were highly agriculturally dependent in the nation,” says Linda Lobao, a rural sociologist at Ohio State University in Columbus. “It’s always the case with land in rural communities: land makes power. And power often doesn’t want change."
--- end short extracts ----
Ravi: I wonder how it is in Andhra Pradesh state in India, and India overall. May be somewhat similar. I keep hearing and reading about small/marginal farmer crisis in Indian media. However, they tend to get subsidies and loan waivers from the govt. That perhaps helps them somewhat.
And, in rural Andhra Pradesh where I have been living for nearly a decade and a half, land certainly makes for (enables/gives) power. No question about that.
[I thank csmonitor.com and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above short extracts from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
A few short extracts are given below:
“What most people think of as family farms don’t exist in large numbers anymore, but what exists are large family businesses … in the $3 to $5 million range,” says Mr. Peters, the Iowa State sociologist.
...
.. says Jonathan Bryant, a history professor at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, who studies small-town life in the South. “That’s become a difficult situation for a lot of folks, and many just leave. Those that don’t are the people you see in those clustered groups of rotting trailer houses: They’re stuck as much as some person in a Central American country is stuck.”
...
“We have seen this kind of inequality before, and it’s when we were highly agriculturally dependent in the nation,” says Linda Lobao, a rural sociologist at Ohio State University in Columbus. “It’s always the case with land in rural communities: land makes power. And power often doesn’t want change."
--- end short extracts ----
Ravi: I wonder how it is in Andhra Pradesh state in India, and India overall. May be somewhat similar. I keep hearing and reading about small/marginal farmer crisis in Indian media. However, they tend to get subsidies and loan waivers from the govt. That perhaps helps them somewhat.
And, in rural Andhra Pradesh where I have been living for nearly a decade and a half, land certainly makes for (enables/gives) power. No question about that.
[I thank csmonitor.com and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above short extracts from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
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