logoalt Hacker News

riffrafftoday at 5:06 AM1 replyview on HN

> Past changes to economic relationships haven't replaced labor either, yet they have led to conflict and starvation.

Conflict sure, but mass starvation? What exactly are you thinking of?

We lived with 20-30% unemployment in various European countries until a few decades ago but I don't think mass starvation was an issue.


Replies

skew-aberrationtoday at 5:48 AM

Starvation due to conflict due to changes in economic relationships, not due directly to unemployment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_famines

Almost every mass famine in the mid to late 20th century was caused by internal conflict. And almost every civil war is rooted in economic and societal organization. Great Chinese Famine, Soviet famine of 1932–1933, Russian famine of 1921–1922, Second Congo War, Nigerian Civil War, Soviet famine of 1946–1947, Khmer Rouge famines, 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia, North Korean famine, Cuban famine, Spanish famine, Mozambican Civil War famine. List goes on. Famine due to military occupations during WW2, such as in Vietnam, Indonesia, Greece, Ukraine, Iran, etc.

The second biggest class of preventable famines would be those caused by the longer-term impoverishment and exploitation of the peasantry, leaving them vulnerable to natural events. This seems much less probable now, even as of the 20th century. It would cover Irish Potato famine and many of the climate induced famines under feudal or colonial rule.

In that second class, we might imagine that the famine could not have occurred if the populations had more economic (and military) power. Instead of being able to keep the scarce food required for subsistence of the local populations, food was exported to pay rent to foreign occupiers or to obtain necessities which cannot be produced locally due to laws set by the occupiers.