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I am a huge fan of Rosling and just finished his book. He doesn't just suggest/believe that people are systematically wrong (worse than random!), he measured it

I am a huge fan of Rosling and just finished his book. He doesn't just suggest/believe that people are systematically wrong (worse than random!), he measured it.

close04 8y ago
For most people the problem is making the difference between poverty and extreme poverty. They draw the line below which differences stop mattering a lot higher. Below a certain quality of life level it's hard for them to imagine anything else can make a significant difference for the worse... or extreme.
- m_mueller 8y ago
  One of my favourite talks is Rosling on washing machines. He makes the case that to have washing machines is a good indicator of middle class as it frees up a lot of time that can be spent well in education and quality of life improvements (payed jobs, home improvement and so on). The availability of washing machines in developing nations has risen dramatically over the last decades. There is now a huge bulge of people around the median world income, and the tail-end is getting smaller, i.e. between the world's poor and middle class the inequality seems to be shrinking actually. It's only the super-rich that appear to be out of control.
  - kbutler 8y ago
    I had a maid in Thailand who did laundry for us, and her favorite person in the world was a previous employer who found and provided a washing machine. I haven't yet read the book, but I recently heard opposing statistics that washing machines don't necessarily free up much time, but they dramatically increase the amount of laundry done and expected cleanliness of clothing. (Jevons paradox) I suspect the truth is mixed, and that at lower income levels, it probably saves a lot of time, and at higher income levels, "consumption" of clean clothing dominates.
    - m_mueller 8y ago
      Probably yes. In a culture with 8 kids per family on average the time saving must be huge, but once you are at 2 kids per family (e.g. India now btw.!) it becomes more a quality of life thing.
    - pbhjpbhj 8y ago
      I've heard similar reports. Hoovers (vacuum cleaners) mean fitted carpets rather than a rug you take out and shake off, or mopped floors, so time savings get eaten up. But "luxury" levels increase.
- Certhas 8y ago
  Rosling does a great job in the book to drive this point home. He has a logarithmic scale centered on 2, 8, 16, and 64$ a day, and shows just how much of an improvement in life it is to go from 2 to 8. It means a massive drop in child mortality, access to health care, small families, educated children, etc....
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

I am a huge fan of Rosling and just finished his book. He doesn't just suggest/believe that people are systematically wrong (worse than random!), he measured it.

close04 8y ago

For most people the problem is making the difference between poverty and extreme poverty. They draw the line below which differences stop mattering a lot higher. Below a certain quality of life level it's hard for them to imagine anything else can make a significant difference for the worse... or extreme.

m_mueller 8y ago
One of my favourite talks is Rosling on washing machines. He makes the case that to have washing machines is a good indicator of middle class as it frees up a lot of time that can be spent well in education and quality of life improvements (payed jobs, home improvement and so on). The availability of washing machines in developing nations has risen dramatically over the last decades. There is now a huge bulge of people around the median world income, and the tail-end is getting smaller, i.e. between the world's poor and middle class the inequality seems to be shrinking actually. It's only the super-rich that appear to be out of control.
- kbutler 8y ago
  I had a maid in Thailand who did laundry for us, and her favorite person in the world was a previous employer who found and provided a washing machine. I haven't yet read the book, but I recently heard opposing statistics that washing machines don't necessarily free up much time, but they dramatically increase the amount of laundry done and expected cleanliness of clothing. (Jevons paradox) I suspect the truth is mixed, and that at lower income levels, it probably saves a lot of time, and at higher income levels, "consumption" of clean clothing dominates.
  - m_mueller 8y ago
    Probably yes. In a culture with 8 kids per family on average the time saving must be huge, but once you are at 2 kids per family (e.g. India now btw.!) it becomes more a quality of life thing.
  - pbhjpbhj 8y ago
    I've heard similar reports. Hoovers (vacuum cleaners) mean fitted carpets rather than a rug you take out and shake off, or mopped floors, so time savings get eaten up. But "luxury" levels increase.
Certhas 8y ago
Rosling does a great job in the book to drive this point home. He has a logarithmic scale centered on 2, 8, 16, and 64$ a day, and shows just how much of an improvement in life it is to go from 2 to 8. It means a massive drop in child mortality, access to health care, small families, educated children, etc....

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]