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Shouldn't it be: Half of the US's _farming_ jobs vanished in one lifetime?

That's not how I read it. 70% of total jobs were farming jobs. Then it was 25% of total jobs. Meaning, 45% of total jobs disappeared.

Of course, they were mostly replaced by other jobs. But the jobs still disappeared.

[Assuming the number of jobs is constant]

[edit] Apparently the population grew massively over this period. From about 23 million to about 123 million. So there was actually an overall doubling of the total number of farming jobs. Just not proportionate to the population increase. http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h980.html

You'd expect the amount of work done on farms to increase in line with the population, simply because the population has to be fed. Any comparison should take that into account. The number of farming jobs per capita has declined drastically as a result of mechanization.

Right. More people => more food.

But some combination of "keep farming like I always have" or "grow up keeping farming like Dad" wasn't supported by economic realities.

(FYI, farming automation was much of the reason the population was able to grow by that much.)

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