5 ms·

It's triage -- solving the biggest fixable problem first.

rayiner 13y ago
Poverty in a place like India, because of its scale and the country's broken social institutions, is a much more uphill battle than poverty in the U.S.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- igravious 13y ago
  You'd think that, wouldn't you? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_eq... There is a greater relative disparity in wealth between the rich and poor in the US of A than India. (relative poverty) Out of the developed countries the US is easily one of the least unequal (if not the most unequal -- I haven't checked) places. This is, of course, because universal health care is communism and social security is for spongers and the lazy. In absolute terms there is undoubtedly more extreme poverty in India than the US. Why that is so is not as simple as the country's broken social institutions, we're still talking about the world's largest democracy here. I would imagine the caste system plays a part. Colonialism too.
  - hearty776 13y ago
    This is just completely ignorant. The income of someone in American poverty is ten times richer than the average person in India. Visit an Indian slum some day.
  - dylangs1030 13y ago
    >In absolute terms there is undoubtedly more extreme poverty in India than the US. Why that is so is not as simple as the country's broken social institutions, we're still talking about the world's largest democracy here. I would imagine the caste system plays a part. Colonialism too. Wealth disparity is not what Rayiner was talking about. He was talking about social infrastructure. You're actually adding to his point here. What he meant was that the wealthy class in India have about the same spending power as the middle class in the United States. They are sheltered away from the extreme destitution that is on display everywhere in their country and don't interact with the poor at all. It's perhaps 10x what you'd see from a rich person walking in NYC avoiding a beggar asking for change on the street. Rapid urbanization and the slow collapse of the caste system has left a vacuum in India's culture that leads to stories like that of the poor woman we saw on Hacker News just last week or so. That is the lack of social infrastructure. Not enough is being done, and not quickly enough, to positively impact the society in a meaningful way. As it is now, India is in a state of culture shock that does nothing to help its economic system.
pessimizer 13y ago
That's not triage. Triage is usually solving the problem most likely to fall into an unsolvable state first. Ignoring all of the easily solvable problems in favor of the biggest solvable problem is usually the worst strategy, if none of the problems are about to fall into an unsolvable state.
elsewhen 13y ago
By "triage" I was referring to the "primitive" variant as explained here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triage http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triage (I.e. two paramedics arriving at a scene with twenty wounded patients)

Poverty in a place like India, because of its scale and the country's broken social institutions, is a much more uphill battle than poverty in the U.S.

deleted 13y ago
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igravious 13y ago
You'd think that, wouldn't you? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_eq... There is a greater relative disparity in wealth between the rich and poor in the US of A than India. (relative poverty) Out of the developed countries the US is easily one of the least unequal (if not the most unequal -- I haven't checked) places. This is, of course, because universal health care is communism and social security is for spongers and the lazy. In absolute terms there is undoubtedly more extreme poverty in India than the US. Why that is so is not as simple as the country's broken social institutions, we're still talking about the world's largest democracy here. I would imagine the caste system plays a part. Colonialism too.
- hearty776 13y ago
  This is just completely ignorant. The income of someone in American poverty is ten times richer than the average person in India. Visit an Indian slum some day.
- dylangs1030 13y ago
  >In absolute terms there is undoubtedly more extreme poverty in India than the US. Why that is so is not as simple as the country's broken social institutions, we're still talking about the world's largest democracy here. I would imagine the caste system plays a part. Colonialism too. Wealth disparity is not what Rayiner was talking about. He was talking about social infrastructure. You're actually adding to his point here. What he meant was that the wealthy class in India have about the same spending power as the middle class in the United States. They are sheltered away from the extreme destitution that is on display everywhere in their country and don't interact with the poor at all. It's perhaps 10x what you'd see from a rich person walking in NYC avoiding a beggar asking for change on the street. Rapid urbanization and the slow collapse of the caste system has left a vacuum in India's culture that leads to stories like that of the poor woman we saw on Hacker News just last week or so. That is the lack of social infrastructure. Not enough is being done, and not quickly enough, to positively impact the society in a meaningful way. As it is now, India is in a state of culture shock that does nothing to help its economic system.

pessimizer 13y ago

That's not triage. Triage is usually solving the problem most likely to fall into an unsolvable state first. Ignoring all of the easily solvable problems in favor of the biggest solvable problem is usually the worst strategy, if none of the problems are about to fall into an unsolvable state.

elsewhen 13y ago

By "triage" I was referring to the "primitive" variant as explained here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triage http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triage (I.e. two paramedics arriving at a scene with twenty wounded patients)