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Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013

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Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013

#151

Post by onebaddude »

jseliger wrote: post #86
tn13 wrote: post #22

As people in Tech industry we should be very proud of Bill Gates and what he has done with Microsoft and his charity work. A lot of people totally miss the point when they say "hey anybody could do all that if they have enough money". That is simply not true. Charity is not just about throwing money at poor, it is a far more difficult job than say building a company. Working for profit is simpler where clear regulati…

That is simply not true. Charity is not just about throwing money at poor This is an important and underappreciated point. Ken Stern makes it in his book With Charity For All , which I wrote more about here: http://blog.seliger.com/2013/06/02/with-charity-for-all-ken-... . In essence, we spend a lot of money on various charitable efforts without knowing what those efforts are really doing. Foreign aid is probably the…

>It hasn't done much. Why not?

I suppose you have to define "hasn't done much."

Perhaps your expectations are too high. Do you think $2 trillion dollars is enough to permanently pull the global population out of poverty?

Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013

#152

Post by onebaddude »

astine wrote: post #107
icambron wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Points 2 and 3 both sound like steps forward to me. Also: > middle income counties has also seen concurrent high real inflation on the ground which is highly under measured. What does that actually mean? "Real" is an economic term that doesn't make sense in that context. And if inflation's not being measured properly, how do you know in which direction it's off? Or more generally - you seem to think inflation is high…

When people say that inflation is not being properly measured, what they're likely referring to is the fact that some policy makers use the CPI Less Food and Energy which means that some of the biggest expenses for the majority of people, food and energy, are sometimes ignored when discussing the effects inflation.

>the fact that some policy makers use the CPI Less Food and Energy which means that some of the biggest expenses for the majority of people, food and energy, are sometimes ignored when discussing the effects inflation.

That's hardly a "fact". It's nonsense that circulates around the internet. Look at the CPI reports yourself.

Both figures are reported and public information, core and headline CPI, with the latter including the volatile food and fuel prices. In fact, you can look at the data and see precisely how much housing and fuel prices have risen or fallen, month to month.

Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013

#153

Post by kamaal »

mcv wrote: post #149
kamaal wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ratio is actually far worse! A lot of 'adjustments' go on during census times. The net ratio is close to ( The main reason for that is dowry and extremely bad treatment meted to women in India. Most people prefer to not have girls at all given these scenarios. Imagine having to spend money on your daughters education, tending to physical safety and then only to find the boy's family asking for big money gifts dur…

> Imagine having to spend money on your daughters education, tending to physical safety and then only to find the boy's family asking for big money gifts during marriage. And not just that, in most common cases the demand for gifts just keep coming infinitely even after marriage. Why? Why would the bride's family give these gifts? What basis is there for these demands? Tradition and culture perhaps, but if the situat…

Its largely cultural, and unfortunately I can never give you a complete context behind these issues. Being a parent of a girl child is difficult in India. Right from birth you will face constant discrimination, every single part of the society will make all attempts to keep your child the weaker gender.

These days its still a lot better. A few decades back, the society would have big problems with as simple a thing like teaching a girl how to read/write. Then came the society's opposition towards women working. That's how backward these people are.

Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013

#154

Post by chronic25 »

onebaddude wrote: post #150
carona wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is about one Foundation and how it was used as vehicle by CIA to launder money into other countries as "Aid to Developing nations", and achieve its political ends. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Foundation#Relationship_wi... The CIA had been laundering its funds for dozens of organizations and events, and the foundation served as one of its main fronts. If you look around you will find a lot of such covert ch…

>If you look around you will find a lot of such covert channels. And if you look around you'll find far, far more examples of honest foundations, filled with honest people, doing honest work. What's your point?

The point is we do not see the results of these "honest" people.

Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013

#155

Post by wmkn »

kamaal wrote: post #144
wmkn wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The net ratio is close to ( With a shortage of women, shouldn't the groom's parents be paying instead?

Having the ability to kill somebody before they were born is a recent medical advancement. Before that you had to simply accept what ever was born to you. Dowry system has been going on India since ancient times. The system works like this. By and large Indian society still works in a system where your parents choose your spouse. So when a boy is of marriageable age, their parents go a matchmaker- and put forward the…

I guess the laws of supply and demand do not apply when ancient traditions are involved.

Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013

#156

Post by derleth »

rodgerd wrote: post #132
tn13 wrote: post #22

As people in Tech industry we should be very proud of Bill Gates and what he has done with Microsoft and his charity work. A lot of people totally miss the point when they say "hey anybody could do all that if they have enough money". That is simply not true. Charity is not just about throwing money at poor, it is a far more difficult job than say building a company. Working for profit is simpler where clear regulati…

> As people in Tech industry we should be very proud of Bill Gates and what he has done with Microsoft and his charity work. Yes, but they won't be because a bunch of neckbeards are still bitter about OS/2 and Netscape dying or Apple being reduced to desktop irrelevance, or what have you, to have anything like a reasonable perspective on these things, which is a shame.

We don't need your sexism and racism.

Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013

#157

Post by coldtea »

rwmj wrote: post #134
coldtea wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Since 1945, I've seen estimates that say the U.S. and Western Europe have donated in the neighborhood of $1 – $2 trillion (with a "t") dollars to various developing countries. It hasn't done much. Why not? Because these money are not about helping those countries grow. It's about keeping them down, financing local lackeys, directing their progress in ways that benefit those giving the money, pushing political and c…

Do you have any evidence for this assertion?

Yes, I read history. And am from a country that has seen actual, hard, 20th century history in the making -- instead of watching it from a far in the History channel.

Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013

#158

Post by coldtea »

onebaddude wrote: post #150
carona wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is about one Foundation and how it was used as vehicle by CIA to launder money into other countries as "Aid to Developing nations", and achieve its political ends. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Foundation#Relationship_wi... The CIA had been laundering its funds for dozens of organizations and events, and the foundation served as one of its main fronts. If you look around you will find a lot of such covert ch…

>If you look around you will find a lot of such covert channels. And if you look around you'll find far, far more examples of honest foundations, filled with honest people, doing honest work. What's your point?

That billions of dollars and foreign aid programs are not decided and funneled through and to honest people.

We're not talking about some small time charity here.

Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013

#159

Post by avar »

wmkn wrote: post #155
kamaal wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having the ability to kill somebody before they were born is a recent medical advancement. Before that you had to simply accept what ever was born to you. Dowry system has been going on India since ancient times. The system works like this. By and large Indian society still works in a system where your parents choose your spouse. So when a boy is of marriageable age, their parents go a matchmaker- and put forward the…

I guess the laws of supply and demand do not apply when ancient traditions are involved.

They do apply, just because there's fewer women than men doesn't mean they're on the supply side.

In traditional Indian culture daughters are seen as a deprecating asset that their parents want to get rid of.

Presumably the bribes dished out to get rid of them are less than their upkeep would cost if they weren't married off, with some added cost to account for the social stigma of having an unmarried single daughter.

Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013

#160

Post by aestra »

shutupalready wrote: post #106
tn13 wrote: post #22

As people in Tech industry we should be very proud of Bill Gates and what he has done with Microsoft and his charity work. A lot of people totally miss the point when they say "hey anybody could do all that if they have enough money". That is simply not true. Charity is not just about throwing money at poor, it is a far more difficult job than say building a company. Working for profit is simpler where clear regulati…

> Over last 10 years, the sex workers in this area have reduced. Hardly anyone wants to ask if that is an overall benefit to society? The sex ratio for India is 108 men per 100 women [1]. For those under 15, the ratio is 113:100, so the problem is set to get much worse in the near future. If India (pop. 1.2 billion) were to have maximal monogamous relationships and no sex workers, you'd have 577 million happy couples…

I don't have facts and figures in front of me right now, but it is thought that the majority of sex workers in poor areas are either forced or coerced into it, up to and including human trafficking, and they start young, perhaps preteens, we aren't talking about high priced call girls here.
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