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You have a good analogy, but the you take it a little too far. Broadway plays have hardly died. From what I hear, they are doing relatively well, and I have watched a number of them as they left broadway and toured into my city at the time. They have fallen somewhat in prominence though.

Similarly, family farms have lost their former prominence in society, but they are far from dead. My grandparents ran one until my grandfather retired due to health problems (recently deceased), and even then they leased their land to another family farm nearby.

There will be a winnowing in journalism, but this does not mean destruction for any of news, plays, or family farms.




Well, by "destruction" what I mean is that

1) In 1850 55% of Americans listed their occupation as farmer or farm laborer. Now it's about 1%. Source here:

http://flare.prefuse.org/apps/job_voyager

2) Regarding plays (Broadway and elsewhere), they've died in the sense that they represent a much smaller fraction of the entertainment dollar relative to movies.


Percentage wise those have both died and you make valid points, but that is hardly death in a true sense. Family farms are still alive and well in many places in America, as are plays, they are just smaller percentages than in the past.


The general consensus is that a successful small family farm is a very rare and dying breed. See: http://www.methlandbook.com/

Would be interesting to see counterexamples, that is some small family farms that are doing good.




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