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When will half of the world be upper class, where making more money won't increase their happiness? That is $75,000 per year in 2013 USD. This second transitio
by ipnon 7y ago
When will half of the world be upper class, where making more money won't increase their happiness? That is $75,000 per year in 2013 USD.
This second transition almost certainly won't appear like the last. There are reasons to believe it may not be gradual like the transition from poverty to middle class.
Will the population be launched into wealth piece by piece, as subgroups of developed economies get access to education and then the capital necessary to make the salary of a Bay Area software engineer, for example? Are there any "natural" forces within capitalism to proliferate this prerequisite education and capital? Can a person with enough intelligence to work in a factory but not enough to get a tertiary degree hope to make this transition into wealth "on their own"?
My only bet is that the current global state of "business as usual" is completely insufficient to make the second transition for any significant proportion of the world's inhabitants.
- ramblerman 7y agoI think we can do things better for sure, and it's a tragedy for all those in poverty that it will still take time, perhaps outside their lifetime. But to suggest there is some wall to the second transition seems unfounded, as "business as usual" is what lead us here in the first place.
- throwawayhhakdl 7y agoThe idea that you can arbitrarily label a dollar value as the the point of the no return is pretty absurd. Even forgetting the differences in cost of living for different areas.