[danieltillett]

It is amazing to see the effect of this in the wild - the land owns the people and it is basically impossible to sell. I have seen people who own land worth 10s of million of dollars live like paupers because they are so tied to the land.

I have wondered how much this effect is genetically built into us - there really is something different about how people view farmland compared to every other asset.

[yters]

Farmland is essentially a complete livelihood, whereas other land is just a place to park a house.

[danieltillett]

Yes, but so is a business and it doesn't seem to induce the same type of ownership.

[soundwave106]

To be honest, I'm willing to bet that the sense of history you get with a multi-generational family farm, probably is matched in other multi-generational family businesses as well.

(However, most businesses don't have the option of the ultimate fallback of subsistence farming if times got really rough. :) )

[jokermatt999]

A business supplies you with currency to trade for the basic necessities. A farm can provide those directly.

[_Codemonkeyism]

Or a wind turbine.