On Tue, Jul 30, 2002 at 10:12:17PM -0700, Charles Jannuzi wrote:
> >>with any definition of productivity I'm
> familiar with. > >Doug
>
> 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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-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu