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Article: Economics and Children in Western Societies
- Article from:
- Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood in History and Society
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Economics and Children in Western Societies
FROM AGRICULTURE TO INDUSTRY
David Levine
THE CONSUMER ECONOMY
Gary Cross
FROM AGRICULTURE TO INDUSTRY
Studying the family's organization of production and consump
tion can only be carried out if one also keeps its reproductive behavior in the same field of vision. For the vast majority of people, for most of the time, the act of balancing "hands" (i.e., production) with "mouths" (i.e., consumption and reproduction) was a precarious act; whether they were peasants, landless proletarians, or artisans, the slightest hint of adversity could destabilize the family unit enough to drive it down into poverty and destitution, from which escape ...