Economic Progress and the Decline of the Countryside

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Economic Progress and the Decline of the
Countryside

• James Dunn
• Pennsylvania State University

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Economic Progress has certain changes

• Agriculture becomes more efficient
• Economies of scale
• Substitute capital for labor
• Fewer, but bigger farms
• Scientific advances
• Better roads make shopping (or working) elsewhere
  possible
• Larger factories mechanization reduce off-farm
  employment

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Polands Dairy Herd
Source Piotr Szajner Polish Dairy Outlook
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Manufacturing

• Factories get bigger and more modern
• Substitute capital for labor
• More mechanization

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Polish Dairy Processors
Source Piotr Szajner Polish Dairy Outlook
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Transportation

• Better roads
• More cars
• More four lane roads
• Bigger and better trucks
• Containerized freight

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Retailing

• Chain stores
• Hyper marts
• More items in store
• More items from far away
• Lower prices for ordinary goods

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Villages

• Small shops struggle
• Smaller and fewer farm families
• Bachelor farmers
• Bedroom communities work in the city, live in
  the village shop in the city
• Lots of old people few young families
• Fewer children in school

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Some examples

• Elkton
• my grandfather drug store
• 1940 doctor left
• 1960 lots of stores
• Now very few bedroom community
• Bryant
• Better roads fewer stores
• Bigger farms fewer people
• Town has shrunk

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Some more

• Greeley
• My father last dentist 1948
• Fire on main street didnt rebuild
• 69 fewer people in county since 1920
• Serbia
• Ireland
• Australia
• Ukraine

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Table 1 Selected US County Population Data Selected US County Population Data Selected US County Population Data Selected US County Population Data Selected US County Population Data Selected US County Population Data
1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 growth

Hamlin 8,054 7,562 6,303 5,261 5,540 -31
Minnehaha 42,490 57,697 86,575 109,435 148,281 249
Brookings 16,119 16,560 20,046 24,332 28,220 75
Douglas 204,524 247,562 343,490 397,038 463,585 127
Greeley 8,685 6,845 4,595 3,462 2,714 -69
Centre 44,304 52,608 78,580 112,760 135,758 206
Mifflin 31,439 42,993 44,348 46,908 46,486 48
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CIS states

• Slovakia
• Serbia
• Ukraine private (?) farms
• Russia - Ussurysk, Voronezh
• Uzbekistan

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What this means

• Villages with just ag will shrink
• Need something else to survive
• Tourism?
• Family history?
• Architecture
• Something else
• Managing shrinkage

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Concluding Comments

• Must have a plan
• Managing growth
• Managing shrinkage
• Local government finance