The world’s rich stay rich while the poor struggle to prosper • Hacker News Board

Re: The world’s rich stay rich while the poor struggle to prosper

#91

Post by john2x » Thu, Jan 30, 2014, 1:38 AM UTC

gesman wrote: post #42

Poor are not staying poor by their "struggle to prosper". Poor are staying poor by keeping doing things that keeping them poor, like getting further down in debt, not acquiring new skills, not being productive and not expressing their creativity. And of course rich have their habits as well. Give money to poor guy, take all the money from rich guy and see where they are in in 5 years. Chances are they'll be back to t…

> by keeping doing things that keeping them poor, like getting further down in debt, not acquiring new skills, not being productive and not expressing their creativity.

That's because they don't have the choice, or the chance, to do not do things. At least for the poor people in 3rd world countries. If they don't spend their entire day working for scraps, they (or more likely their children) could die the next day.

Re: The world’s rich stay rich while the poor struggle to prosper

#92

Post by winfred » Thu, Jan 30, 2014, 1:55 AM UTC

lmg643 wrote: post #17

Bill Gates would have to believe his efforts were worthwhile in order to keep himself motivated to try. He's essentially "all-in" on the Gates Foundation. His pronouncement on eliminating poverty is an aspiration he phrases as a "fact" and we are taken aback by the audacious claim, primarily because he's been wildly successful before, so hey, lightning might strike twice. What if? And why discourage him? It doesn't s…

>When I think in terms of probably outcomes, it seems more likely that the US will regress towards the global mean, rather than remaining as a permanent statistical outlier.

I'm not sure what metric you are using to compare the US to other countries that make you think it is a statistical outlier, but unless your key metric is military spending, I have some news for you...

Re: The world’s rich stay rich while the poor struggle to prosper

#93

Post by quadrangle » Thu, Jan 30, 2014, 1:59 AM UTC

alexeisadeski3 wrote: post #57

Inequality whining has already jumped the shark.

Because it's got nothing more to say and nothing relevant anymore? The "jumped the shark" reference is to absurd things after running out of ideas. It doesn't apply at all here. Non sequitur.

Inequality whining is just getting started, given that we're on track for the problem to just get worse.

Re: The world’s rich stay rich while the poor struggle to prosper

#94

Post by JumpCrisscross » Thu, Jan 30, 2014, 2:05 AM UTC

saalweachter wrote: post #85

bsbechtel wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Perhaps it's an inherent property of capitalism: some things always end up barely within reach of a lower class. I wouldn't say that's true, we just need to figure out ways to produce those things cheaply enough (through automation, other technologies) that everyone can enjoy them. Take a look at agriculture in the US...even the poorest people here have access to (not very healthy) food whereas just under 100 years…

Well, sort of. In the US, about 85% of households are "food secure". Non-capitalist sources -- eg, charities or government assistance -- close the gap for about 9% of households, and in the remaining 6% of households one or more people are missing meals. I don't really think that's a success.

Being able to complain about 94% food security is something of a social miracle, in the grand arc of history.

Re: The world’s rich stay rich while the poor struggle to prosper

#95

Post by chc » Thu, Jan 30, 2014, 2:25 AM UTC

xenophanes wrote: post #32

nostromo wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having kids is the old-school form of immortality. I imagine many of those other billionaires are thinking about their dynasty.

Their kids will need SENS ~30 years after they do. I get that the typical plan is to have a dynasty via grand kids, great grand kids, etc, but it's dumb to ignore SENS.

It's not dumb to ignore it if you believe it to be a fool's errand.

Re: The world’s rich stay rich while the poor struggle to prosper

#96

Post by pistle » Thu, Jan 30, 2014, 2:28 AM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #94

saalweachter wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, sort of. In the US, about 85% of households are "food secure". Non-capitalist sources -- eg, charities or government assistance -- close the gap for about 9% of households, and in the remaining 6% of households one or more people are missing meals. I don't really think that's a success.

Being able to complain about 94% food security is something of a social miracle, in the grand arc of history.

Which is good enough... let us be judged against hunter gatherers. We kick ass.

Re: The world’s rich stay rich while the poor struggle to prosper

#97

Post by pistle » Thu, Jan 30, 2014, 2:30 AM UTC

xenophanes wrote: post #23

FD3SA wrote: post #12

I've always been baffled by the investment choices of billionaires. If you accept an empirical view of the universe, no matter what you do, you will eventually die. Your experiences of the world will cease to exist. Therefore, the only rational investment would be in life extension technologies (SENS, advanced prosthesis, etc.). At first, this might sound repulsive. The idea of a group of elites discovering and hoard…

Big SENS fan here. Good question. A lot of the reason is that people do philanthropy to gain various types of status and reputation. It's often a social action. Investing in SENS wouldn't impress their friends in the right way, while various other causes optimize for social signaling. Yachts and social media companies are a bit different. The yachts are for fun in addition to being a social signal that impresses some…

A couple people do philanthropy because they care. But the rest are just trying to impress friends.

Re: The world’s rich stay rich while the poor struggle to prosper

#98

Post by 1stop » Thu, Jan 30, 2014, 2:49 AM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #94

saalweachter wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, sort of. In the US, about 85% of households are "food secure". Non-capitalist sources -- eg, charities or government assistance -- close the gap for about 9% of households, and in the remaining 6% of households one or more people are missing meals. I don't really think that's a success.

Being able to complain about 94% food security is something of a social miracle, in the grand arc of history.

Well sure if you limit your sample size to "The richest country in the world" then yeah you are doing great! 5 Stars! The world is perfect. Go Team America!

Meanwhile there are more people than the entire population of the US starving else where. I'd hazard the guess that that's worse than at any other time in history.

Re: The world’s rich stay rich while the poor struggle to prosper

#99

Post by xname » Thu, Jan 30, 2014, 2:58 AM UTC

"So what about China and India? Their recent growth performance has been exceptional, but both are still desperately poor countries by the standards set by Switzerland and Norway. The gap will take many generations to eradicate."

-- This is kind of ridiculous. How can you pick an exceptional rich sample to set standards? Seriously? ????????

Re: The world’s rich stay rich while the poor struggle to prosper

#100

Post by seanmcdirmid » Thu, Jan 30, 2014, 3:00 AM UTC

1stop wrote: post #98

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being able to complain about 94% food security is something of a social miracle, in the grand arc of history.

Well sure if you limit your sample size to "The richest country in the world" then yeah you are doing great! 5 Stars! The world is perfect. Go Team America! Meanwhile there are more people than the entire population of the US starving else where. I'd hazard the guess that that's worse than at any other time in history.

> Meanwhile there are more people than the entire population of the US starving else where. I'd hazard the guess that that's worse than at any other time in history.

Considering that there are more people now than at any other time in history, this almost always a safe and lazy guess to make (that their are more people in situation X than at any other time in history).