No. You see, a "productive" economy is one in which 60% of the population grows food to feed everyone, and only 40% of the labor force is available to make other stuff. That keeps demand for SUVs down, you see... Brad DeLong<<
Nonsense. Look at Japan. It fit the developing country model to quite an extent. The year 1945 moved it backward. It's cities were bombed, the population that remained having fled to the countryside. The cities were rebuilt, but the large land holdings were broken up and a new class of smallhold farmers was created. They formed the social bedrock of small town and country life in Japan, and they fed the cities.
Japan protected its agriculture somewhat (no where near as much as most Americans believe, if they believe anything at all--by the early 1960s the country was more or less self-sufficent in food but now this has slipped to below 40%).
This was the key to high nationwide development levels not just in the cities but in the countryside as well. Through national direction and bottom-up efforts (JA started as a cooperative movement, in wholesale and retail of farmers' goods and in credit banks), Japan became a fully developed country and avoided being a temperate Philippines. There were other knock-on effects. Rural and small town workers were employed in thousands of textile factories that then became semiconductor and auto parts factories (til the 1980s trade protection and overvalued yen put an end to those booms). Still, now many of those farmers drive SUVs here.
CJ
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