521–530 of 544 posts
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its amazing. and unfortunately they will be the last generation that will be able to do it. just like for western countries everything will become unaffordable and the middle class wont be able to buy houses
“The future’s not set. There’s no fate but what we make for ourselves.”
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Not everything is rosy though. In cities like Bangalore, real estate is super expensive, thanks to software salaries. The same is happening in second, third tier cities now. But generally speaking, yes, all it takes is one person from a family landing a white collar job. And life becomes (relatively) much better
India’s physical infrastructure has honestly fallen way, way behind our digital infrastructure. Absurd that I can go a month in India without ever using cash or cards, order everything I want from anywhere and have it delivered within a day (or even minutes), yet it can sometimes take me 45 minutes to travel 3k and that my car’s suspension breaks down at 50k kilometers because there is no public transport and the roa…
I really love India, have been visiting for tech business for over 20 years. I've found it to be one of the toughest countries to do business. I'd be more physically and mentally drained at the end of each day. And I'd fly out with a huge to do list. Yet there has been many heartening observations along the way. I saw a poor woman go up to the window of the frequent flyer lounge kitchen, she placed with her hands out…
Its a fantastic place to 'grow up' from whining western spoiled kid into mature adult, to get some grip on how real world is, unfair, cruel, harsh, but also amazingly beautiful. The quickest and by far best way to do this is backpacking all around, taking slow public transport, sleeping cheap, eating cheap where locals eat etc. I've spent like 500$ per month there in 2010. Yes there may be unpleasant bowel issues but…
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Its a fantastic place to 'grow up' from whining western spoiled kid into mature adult, to get some grip on how real world is, unfair, cruel, harsh, but also amazingly beautiful. The quickest and by far best way to do this is backpacking all around, taking slow public transport, sleeping cheap, eating cheap where locals eat etc. I've spent like 500$ per month there in 2010. Yes there may be unpleasant bowel issues but…
Chew food very well to avoid bowel issues. Your stomach acid will take care of many pathogens but not if it can't reach them.
So they lifted almost twice my home country's population out of poverty in 15 years? That's impressive. Also, how did India got to have so many people?
Because of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Gangetic_Plain
An exaggerated relief map showing its sheer size and flatness: https://i.redd.it/5qv0bvyrd9h01.png
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The free aka perfect market does not exist. It's impossible to achieve in reality: - fungible goods (i.e. stuff like toilet paper where you have 100s of vendors most people can't really differentiate much in terms of end result): good luck with that for any kind of complex good - perfect information symmetry (i.e. the vendor and the buyer and seller know exactly the same about the product): can't happen when most buy…
Nobody thinks a perfect market, or perfect anything is possible. It's just a theoretical concept. None of the imperfections you mentioned can be solved by a state or any other form of coercion.
Says you, basically.
All current markets have state intervention, and the best ones have good state intervention.
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… but India isn’t successful on the same scale as China. India’s middle class is not secure nor are successive generations guaranteed to remain middle class. That wealth is just not there. India’s real middle class is just one financial disaster away from poverty. China on the other hand has been immensely successful at lifting millions out of poverty and securing them firmly in the middle class. Also, if you think I…
You could say the same for any nation though. Right now, I would say that the Western middle class is not secure either, particularly in Europe, and just one disaster away from poverty. Young families are priced out of starter homes and there is increasing uncertainty. We don't know what is the extent of the real estate bad loan crisis in China. But if the protests surrounding it are telling, then I would say that th…
India’s middle class will fall into poverty if they lose their money. the critical difference is that the indian middle class is without government or societal support to help them out of poverty.
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The license raj is still there for business, except maybe some sectors like tech startups. Yes there has been improvements in citizens life like mobile phones etc. But official harassment and bribery is as prevalent as before. Want to get a passport issued or renewed have to pay Rs 500 to the police. Just last week a mother and her kids died as they were turned away from a govt hospital as they could not show the Aad…
I wonder which city this would be where you still need to bribe the police for getting a passport. I got mine in 2015 and the process was hassle-free. But this was in a tier-1 city, so my experience might be an exception.
Funny story - I had my police verification the week of demonetization in 2016. After the cop was done, we both silently knew that even if he asked for something, there just wasn't cash available to give him. He looked heartbroken.
