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The Most Important Thing: Decline in poverty, illiteracy and disease

nytimes.com

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Re: The Most Important Thing: Decline in poverty, illiteracy and disease

#81

Post by WalterBright »

manachar wrote: post #4

It's really weird to me how commonplace the attitude of "It is what it is" and "Government can't do anything". The air and water quality in the US is vastly better since the passage of laws that created and empowered the EPA (Created by the Republican President Nixon). The endangered species act has had many similar successes. I live on Maui. The waters are now filled with Green Sea Turtles and Humpback whales that w…

It's the classic tragedy of the commons. Nobody owns the waterways and the air, and hence individuals have neither the power nor incentive to protect them.

Re: The Most Important Thing: Decline in poverty, illiteracy and disease

#82

Post by baddox »

deciplex wrote: post #80
baddox wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which side has the actual ability to forcefully implement their desired policies over a large population?

Both.

Do you really suppose so? I suppose it's technically possible for both to try, but imagine the resistance one side would be met with.

Re: The Most Important Thing: Decline in poverty, illiteracy and disease

#83

Post by gozo »

ekianjo wrote: post #70

So this is where some folks on HN should come and complain and the raising inequalities, despite the fact that literally everyone is getting richer. Which is what ultimately matters.

Not everyone is getting richer. People aren't getting richer because of inequality. Even if they were they don't lose their right to a fair share. "What ultimately matter" is a weak argument that could be said to justify anything e.g. security over freedom.

Re: The Most Important Thing: Decline in poverty, illiteracy and disease

#84

Post by 13thLetter »

api wrote: post #78
ekianjo wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And finally: the foundations of modern economic wealth, vast quantities of nonrenewable resources, tapped at uttelry unsustainable rates, are quite simply not sustainable. Without looking to this basis, effectively the fuel in the tank, observations of altitude or velocity tell little. the fuel in the tank has been increasing a lot actually in the past 20 years. Did you notice that the US became the first producer…

Bubbles always go higher than anyone expects, and those who attempt to call the top always look like fools for a time. Fossil fuel extraction is a bubble. That's just grade school math: finite supply, constant and increasing demand. But when will it pop and what happens then? That's a lot tougher to know, and so far all attempts to call a top have been wrong. But a crash will come. How bad will depend on just how far…

It won't "pop" because that's not how economics works.

If the alarmists are correct and peak fossil fuels is just around the corner, then after the peak the cost of fossil fuels will gradually go up until alternatives -- alternatives that we know about and can make use of relatively quickly -- make more economic sense. At some point, certain sources of oil will become economically viable which aren't now. At a higher point, it will make more sense to create synfuels, or switch to natural gas, or to build more solar or wind plants and all-electric cars. Will this be economically worse than just using cheap fossil fuels? Yes (assuming that the pricey energy doesn't motivate breakthrough technology such as fusion power or really good solar.) Will the world end or even change dramatically? No.

Heck, it's an insane, absurd speculation, but maybe at some point energy will become so expensive we'll even come to our senses, stop listening to Greenpeace, and build nuclear plants to use that 10,000 years of uranium. Weirder things have happened.

Re: The Most Important Thing: Decline in poverty, illiteracy and disease

#85

Post by roymurdock »

meow_mix wrote: post #71
ceras wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's already inflation-adjusted.

Where did you find that out ceras?

Go to the site linked in the article: http://iresearch.worldbank.org/PovcalNet/index.htm?1

See column titled "Pov.line (PPP$/day)"

Click on column title to bring up this text: http://iresearch.worldbank.org/PovcalNet/Docs/dictionary.htm...

And there they give you the definition of PPP, aka purchasing power parity, and tell you they are using 2005 rates of consumption.

Re: The Most Important Thing: Decline in poverty, illiteracy and disease

#86

Post by InclinedPlane »

Max_Horstmann wrote: post #6

Since this is HN, here's a question: what role could technology play in eliminating extreme poverty by 2030?

Making education and communication more accessible would be a huge win. And that's something you could do with low cost (or subsidized) mobile devices.

Re: The Most Important Thing: Decline in poverty, illiteracy and disease

#87

Post by notNow »

mninm wrote: post #35

"We cover planes that crash, not planes that take off." It always fascinates me how much my world view and the world view of those around me is based on the exceptional and not the mundane. The news outlets report the news assuming that the audience knows what's normal. When the news is used to become informed about the world many people come away with a skewed impression of reality. I am of the opinion that people w…

You never heard of the "Man bites dog" rule in news reporting?

Re: The Most Important Thing: Decline in poverty, illiteracy and disease

#88

Post by danharaj »

WalterBright wrote: post #81
manachar wrote: post #4

It's really weird to me how commonplace the attitude of "It is what it is" and "Government can't do anything". The air and water quality in the US is vastly better since the passage of laws that created and empowered the EPA (Created by the Republican President Nixon). The endangered species act has had many similar successes. I live on Maui. The waters are now filled with Green Sea Turtles and Humpback whales that w…

It's the classic tragedy of the commons. Nobody owns the waterways and the air, and hence individuals have neither the power nor incentive to protect them.

It is reasonable to believe that the tragedy of the commons is caused by society being organized around private ownership, not the nature of the commons itself.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons#Critici...

Re: The Most Important Thing: Decline in poverty, illiteracy and disease

#89

Post by orblivion »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #56
tsotha wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>That's right, that terribly communist government suppressing its people and free speech, is actually responsible for lifting 500 million people out of poverty over the last 30 years. There isn't anything recognizably communist about the Chinese system aside from the name. And the big spurt of growth didn't start until Deng's market-based reforms of the '70s. So a better way to put it would be "After its Marxist fant…

That unrecognisably non-communist system still has huge elements of central planning, government control, censorship, and price fixing. It's hardly a free market paradise. If you want a free market paradise with minimal government, try Somalia. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4017147.stm

As long as you cite the BBC's take on Somalia you might as well give it a fair shake:

* http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12278628 * http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-12285365

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