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In many places in the world today, the poor are getting poorer while the rich are getting richer, and the programs of developing planning and foreign aid appear to be unable to reverse this trend. Nearly all the developing countries have a modern part, where the patterns of living and working are similar to those in developed countries. But they also have a non-modern part, where the patterns of living and working are not only unsatisfactory, but in many cases they are even getting worse. What is the typical condition of the poor in developing countries? Their work opportunities are so limited that they cannot work their way out of their situation. They are underemployed, or totally unemployed. Some of them have land, but often too little land. Many have no land, and no prospect of ever getting any. There is no home for them in the rural areas, and so they drift into the big cities. But there is no work for them in the big cities either and of course no housing. At the same time, they flock into the cities because their chances of finding some work appear to be greater there than in the villages. Rural unemployment, then becomes urban unemployment. |