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The history of civilization is full of inventive people finding ways to make life better, and then doing so. Why does this not happen in these poverty stricken
by DigitalJack 14y ago
The history of civilization is full of inventive people finding ways to make life better, and then doing so. Why does this not happen in these poverty stricken areas? Is it because anyone intelligent enough to do something about it leaves?
They don't have to jump straight to modern plumbing to have their lives improved.
- thisrod 14y agoThere are many hypotheses about this; history only happens once, so it's hard to test them. Here are a couple of the more interesting ideas. Jared Diamond: Eurasia runs east-west and has a large temperate zone. This supports enough biodiversity that the plants and animals you need to start farming can be found in one place. Other continents run north-south, lack biodiversity, and couldn't be farmed until Europeans introduced some critical species. Lots of lawyers and economists, whose names I've forgotten: By default, someone bigger than you nicks whatever you make, until you get sick of making stuff. The exception is when you make weapons, and nick stuff from people bigger than you. Something strange and kind of miraculous happened in England a few centuries ago, and led to the only society that isn't like that.
- Radim 14y agoAnd now for something completely different: Could the strange and miraculous have been... Dennis Moore?! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLkhx0eqK5w http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLkhx0eqK5w
- Houshalter 14y agoIt does happen to some extent. I have always been impressed by the way slum areas build tons of functional structures from scrap. But there is only so much you can do with limited resources, and extreme poverty implies that.