Opinion: Factory jobs are not the answer

Even before we entered the 21st Century, we identified ourselves, as well as certain European countries, Canada, Japan, and similar nations, as “post-industrial societies.” That wasn’t just a catch phrase; it was an accurate description of the transition that economically advanced countries had experienced. Historically, some societies have evolved through three stages of economic activity: Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary.

Primary industry

If we go far enough back in time, we would find a world in which every grouping of people was typified by hunting and gathering. In some cases, all people were hunters. This was especially true for clans that lived in rain forests where most essential protein was obtained from consuming other animals. In other cases, like some tribes that inhabited the southern sections of California, all people were gatherers, like the Kumeyaay people who relied on edible seeds, nuts, beans, and fruits for their nourishment. Others, like the Serrano people of the Mojave, were both skilled hunters as well as gatherers of acorns and pine nuts.

As societies evolved from clan and tribal structures, they tended to rely on primary industry. That is, the major economic activity was based on working with natural resources: forestry, farming, herding, mining, and so forth. Even in the nineteenth century, at least 90 percent of the population of Africa was made up of farmers. Statistics are probably much the same for most of Asia and some other parts of the earth.