uncanny parallels, revisited

[Brad De Long]

>Brad De Long wrote:
>
>>I thought that "we" was "us." Is there anyone who doesn't believe 
>>that Deng Xiaoping's dismantling of the communes in the late 1970s 
>>triggered an enormous increase in agricultural production in China?
>
>That may be, but does that translate into increased welfare for 
>peasants? Haven't scores of millions been displaced, desperate for 
>day labor in the cities?

The right answer is that we don't know what's been going on in the 
interior of China since 1980. We do see rising real wage levels in 
the coastal cities, suggesting that the dominant force inducing 
rural-urban migration is still "pull" from urban opportunity rather 
than "push" from rural displacement.

But I'm not the right person to ask...

Brad DeLong