Quote from: JaneEverycunt on May 06, 2016, 04:49:14 PM

Quote from: LCSociety on May 06, 2016, 04:41:39 PM

Quote from: Kprawn on May 06, 2016, 03:29:08 PM

The internet access requirement is BS.... I travelled to most of these countries and they are using mobile phones. We have seen people linking Sms's to Bitcoin and sending Bitcoin via emails.

Yeah Zimbabwe is very technologically up to date. Actually, there are parts of the US that are potentially more derelict and poverty stricken than the roughest towns in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe GDP per capita (yearly): $475.26 US. That's less than $1.50/day.
Can't put much of a spin on that Cheesy

These numbers are hogwash

Don't believe everything you read. There are doctors that have taken flight and moved their entire family to parts of the middle east, africa, india and so on - because they can earn bundles more money via opening their own private practices in countries with less bureaucracy and red tape than the western states

Most corporations and private individuals in these "thrid world" countries don't even report their income so how these GDP numbers are produced is beyond me

It's not like in the US where the IRS has their foot firmly on the necks of the entire population - the governments of these "developing" nations make more money from managing the distribution (fairly, or unfairly) of their natural resources than they do from taxing their populations

So these GDP figures are merely pieces of fiction because there is no single collation of records showing the income of each individual in Zimbabwe or in any other developing nation

Quote from: ebliever on May 06, 2016, 05:08:54 PM

Quote from: LCSociety on May 06, 2016, 04:41:39 PM

The traffic may be an issue, but you get the sense that their economy is quite mature and developed - perhaps more so than the bankrupt state of Detroit if you were to be a little pedantic

I was born in Detroit. It's mismanagement is legendary, but if you take Detroit _as a whole_ and compare it with Zimbabwe, it still beats the latter hands down in economic terms. Perhaps because Mugabe is at least as bad as Coleman Young and the rest of the bunch in Detroit combined.

Yep, one of the previous mayors of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick, was thrown in jail a few years back due to embezzlement and fraud. Mismanagement is an understatement

Detroit is pretty screwed economically actually. It's one sole claim to financial competence is GM... and even they have been bailed out with taxpayer money many times in the past.

Detroit financially is a joke when compared to Zimbabwe. Yes, Zimbabwe's currency is the equivalent of a premine scam - but this weak currency allows foriegn corporations to benefit by paying the people that they employ in Zimbabwe less money. When you convert this into USD, the savings are gargantuan. The gold, nickel, coal, copper, iron ore, chrome ore, and silver mining conglomerates that do a lot of work over there benefit heavily from this, and pay an intense amount of kickbacks to the Zimbabwean government.

Hence why Mugabe is the ONLY dictator from the 80's that is still in power today. He plays ball... the unites states, britain everyone loves this guy.

Unlike Saddam and Gaddaffi who refused to debase their own currencies.

Watch this video of Mugabe in London in 1976, as the BBC pleasantly describes him a Leader of the most active "group of guerrillas", prior to him seizing power. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnGaSbA0aIk Was he funded by the brits? We can speculate on that, he definitely received media promotion from britian - was this part of a larger package of financial support? Who knows.

Zimbabwe is your modern day corporatocracy

But they are only able to be a corporatocracy because they have vital - and valuable - minerals. Detroit has nothing. The united states government doesn't even care about detroit enough to supply them with fresh water