Advanced market economies have been described variously as affluent, technocratic, urban-industrial, post-industrial, and rurban, the latter recognizing the predominance of the suburb. Others refer to the United States as an information society or a service economy. Each of these terms characterizes important dimensions of modern, developed economies. These characteristics and trends and changes in the farm, rural, and total economy have important implications for agricultural research and extension as well as for the economics of public policy. Exploring some of these changes and their implications mainly for farm management extension is the major purpose of this paper. I list major changes occurring in the financial structure of agriculture and attendant cash-flow problems before examining other dimensions of farm structure and their implications for education extension.