5 ms·

26 (left most) = 3'500'000'000 (right most) That is one staggering statistic. If I were one of those 26 people, I'd consider myself a superhero. Wake up every

by ak39 8y ago

26 (left most) = 3'500'000'000 (right most) That is one staggering statistic. If I were one of those 26 people, I'd consider myself a superhero. Wake up every morning knowing that I am capable of saving and improving lives of an entire (small) country!

tonyedgecombe 8y ago
I suspect they mostly wake up wondering how they can make even more. You need an insatiable appetite to get on that list. Poor buggers.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- peteretep 8y ago
  > You need an insatiable appetite to get on that list. Poor buggers. Mmmm, some. Of the 26 I found, 7 inherited.
sgjohnson 8y ago
But please tell me how. Providing them all with clothing, housing, food and healthcare wouldn't solve anything. As a matter of fact, it would only make matters worse. It'll lead to a increase in birth rates without actually addressing the problem at the core. They have to be taught trade, not provided for. A healthy capitalist economy must be created in those places. It's giving the man a fish vs teaching the man how to fish.
- yesbabyyes 8y ago
  The man knows how to fish. Unfortunately for him, the fisheries are collapsing, because someone who wants to become wealthy is sending trawlers from halfway around the world, taking all the fish and leaving destruction in their wake. The man also knows how to farm. What looks like forest, or jungle, to you, is actually the man's farm--has been, for generations. But that was last year: men came with guns, fenced off the forest, logged it, and now it's all a palm oil plantation, stretching toward the horizon in all directions. The man and his family were offered "jobs", earning a pittance, barely enough for survival, buying rice imported from halfway across the world. Because some other man wanted to be wealthy. The man can't manage his resources, because there is no legal framework for him to do it. The people who claimed to create a free-market, "teaching the man how to fish", etc, actually created the present situation, so may be looked at today with some suspicion.
- KozmoNau7 8y ago
  Increasing peoples' standing in life decreases the birth rate. And no, there is no such thing as a "healthy capitalist economy", capitalism is by definition based on exploitation of the less fortunate. Saying such things is obviously heresy to the Silicon Valley set and capitalists in general, but it's the uncomfortable truth.
  - sgjohnson 8y ago
    Capitalism by definition is private property rights and voluntary exchanges between individuals/businesses. It's the very antithesis to exploitation. You might say that it's immoral to pay $1 an hour to people Africa to produce Nike shoes for the US market, except it isn't. It's simply the market rate. Could they afford to pay more? Yes. But it's in no means exploitation. That $1 an hour they make boosts the local economy, driving the quality of life up. Make it $10/h, and nobody would work for local companies there anymore. And do you have any metric that proves that peoples' standing in life decreases the birth rate? For example, there hasn't been a noticable decrease in Nigeria. https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/nigeria-population/ https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/nigeria-popul... https://tradingeconomics.com/nigeria/gdp-growth https://tradingeconomics.com/nigeria/gdp-growth
    - vidarh 8y ago
      > It's the very antithesis to exploitation. Only if you believe in the fantasy of an equal exchange between people with vastly different economic positions. This is such a fantasy that hardly a country in the world does not confer additional legal protections to the worker to try to at least to some extent level the playing-field. Historically, it took people dying to secure even basic protections, Like example stopping employers from locking people in, like what caused 146 deaths at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. It took nearly a century, and dozens of people killed in demonstrations and strikes to get reasonably widespread application of the 8 hour working day. When people worldwide march on May 1st, they do so in part in memory of the Haymarket Massacre [2] and the AFL's subsequent move to resume the fight for the 8 hour day. Nothing in the history of the labor movement suggests there is anything like an equal exchange for most people. Some of us are privileged enough to be in positions where we have something resembling an equal exchange that is truly voluntary in am meaningful way, but for most their economic position is weak enough that the employer always has more power. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fi... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_affair https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_affair
- isostatic 8y ago
  One thing that increases birth rates? Wanting your kids to look after you in old age. Have 10 kids, 7 survive, 3 are boys, they each give 20% of their income to you when you're too old to work, you get to live.

by ak39 8y ago

tonyedgecombe 8y ago

I suspect they mostly wake up wondering how they can make even more. You need an insatiable appetite to get on that list. Poor buggers.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
peteretep 8y ago
> You need an insatiable appetite to get on that list. Poor buggers. Mmmm, some. Of the 26 I found, 7 inherited.

sgjohnson 8y ago

But please tell me how. Providing them all with clothing, housing, food and healthcare wouldn't solve anything. As a matter of fact, it would only make matters worse. It'll lead to a increase in birth rates without actually addressing the problem at the core. They have to be taught trade, not provided for. A healthy capitalist economy must be created in those places. It's giving the man a fish vs teaching the man how to fish.

yesbabyyes 8y ago
The man knows how to fish. Unfortunately for him, the fisheries are collapsing, because someone who wants to become wealthy is sending trawlers from halfway around the world, taking all the fish and leaving destruction in their wake. The man also knows how to farm. What looks like forest, or jungle, to you, is actually the man's farm--has been, for generations. But that was last year: men came with guns, fenced off the forest, logged it, and now it's all a palm oil plantation, stretching toward the horizon in all directions. The man and his family were offered "jobs", earning a pittance, barely enough for survival, buying rice imported from halfway across the world. Because some other man wanted to be wealthy. The man can't manage his resources, because there is no legal framework for him to do it. The people who claimed to create a free-market, "teaching the man how to fish", etc, actually created the present situation, so may be looked at today with some suspicion.
KozmoNau7 8y ago
Increasing peoples' standing in life decreases the birth rate. And no, there is no such thing as a "healthy capitalist economy", capitalism is by definition based on exploitation of the less fortunate. Saying such things is obviously heresy to the Silicon Valley set and capitalists in general, but it's the uncomfortable truth.
- sgjohnson 8y ago
  Capitalism by definition is private property rights and voluntary exchanges between individuals/businesses. It's the very antithesis to exploitation. You might say that it's immoral to pay $1 an hour to people Africa to produce Nike shoes for the US market, except it isn't. It's simply the market rate. Could they afford to pay more? Yes. But it's in no means exploitation. That $1 an hour they make boosts the local economy, driving the quality of life up. Make it $10/h, and nobody would work for local companies there anymore. And do you have any metric that proves that peoples' standing in life decreases the birth rate? For example, there hasn't been a noticable decrease in Nigeria. https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/nigeria-population/ https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/nigeria-popul... https://tradingeconomics.com/nigeria/gdp-growth https://tradingeconomics.com/nigeria/gdp-growth
  - vidarh 8y ago
    > It's the very antithesis to exploitation. Only if you believe in the fantasy of an equal exchange between people with vastly different economic positions. This is such a fantasy that hardly a country in the world does not confer additional legal protections to the worker to try to at least to some extent level the playing-field. Historically, it took people dying to secure even basic protections, Like example stopping employers from locking people in, like what caused 146 deaths at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. It took nearly a century, and dozens of people killed in demonstrations and strikes to get reasonably widespread application of the 8 hour working day. When people worldwide march on May 1st, they do so in part in memory of the Haymarket Massacre [2] and the AFL's subsequent move to resume the fight for the 8 hour day. Nothing in the history of the labor movement suggests there is anything like an equal exchange for most people. Some of us are privileged enough to be in positions where we have something resembling an equal exchange that is truly voluntary in am meaningful way, but for most their economic position is weak enough that the employer always has more power. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fi... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_affair https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_affair
isostatic 8y ago
One thing that increases birth rates? Wanting your kids to look after you in old age. Have 10 kids, 7 survive, 3 are boys, they each give 20% of their income to you when you're too old to work, you get to live.