[youngidiot]

The greatest period of growth in agricultural productivity in the U.S. was from the 1940s to the 1970s.

[youngidiot]

By all means, look this up. But after taking inflation and population into account, the real GDP for the following decades are:

1940s: 5.6%
1950s: 4.1%
1960s: 4.4%
1970s: 3.2%

That kind of growth for 40 years wasn't seen before and hasn't been seen since. It can be argued that several other factors besides farm mechanization were at play, but what can't be argued is that leaving half the people who lost their jobs to farm mechanization “in the wind” was detrimental.