Quote from: bhu on September 01, 2013, 02:35:04 PM

Quote from: LightRider on September 01, 2013, 03:26:24 AM

Quote from: bhu on August 31, 2013, 09:02:37 PM

Quote from: LightRider on August 31, 2013, 08:41:05 PM

Has SQ1 considered investigating a resource based economy, where tremendous resources are not wasted in the efforts of currency creation and transaction processing, and instead are used intelligently for the benefit of all people?

Thank you, LightRider. I visited The Venus Project. Looks interesting. Will look into it further with an open mind. But I do believe that capitalism is a pretty good system. And it allows for expression of human creativity and ingenuity in ways that all other systems do not. Even in the closest thing to a controlled experiment, we saw the difference between West Germany and East Germany at the point of unification. North Korea vs. South Korea today.

It's disappointing that you believe that the vast majority of the world's population suffers for the benefit of the relatively few is a pretty good system.

LightRider, let me clarify as I always believe in having an open mind. I spent a few weeks in India this summer. I was also born in India and immigrated to the United States in grade school. I have witnessed abject poverty of a type that any visitor to India sees. Any tourist to India knows that to see an 8-year old carrying an infant sibling begging at a stoplight for money is a common site. India leads the world in child malnutrition rates. Over 500,000 children die per year from dysentery.

This year, however, I was very pleasantly surprised in Bangalore and Chennai, both in South India. There were massive infrastructure projects being built. I noticed minimal poverty of the gut-wrenching, disheartening variety. Even 6 years ago in these same cities, I noticed large numbers of beggars and street children; I didn't this year. I was stunned. I also noticed some of the population spoke hindi, which is not spoken in the south. This is due to labor shortages where hindi speakers migrated south for jobs. It is unpopular to say this, but wealth is definitely trickling down in South India while North India, where export-oriented industries are lacking does not enjoy the same degree of poverty alleviation. This is the market working.

There is another perspective I have being born in a 3rd world country with my family's sole ambition when I was a child to migrate to a country with better economic prospects: The average American owns a car. You cannot claim to be poor when you own an automobile. You cannot claim to be poor when you have indoor plumbing and a couple of good meals a day.

In India and Africa, there is no such thing as an obese poor person; this would be an oxymoron. Poor people in the world do not have enough to eat.

In 1961, South Korea, China, and India had very similar GDP per capita. Today, South Korea is a first world country, China is on the verge of being a 2nd world country, and India hopefully can solve large issues of poverty this decade, as it is doing. Political and economic systems do matter. In my view, China embracing export-oriented growth and private wealth has uplifted hundreds of millions from poverty over the past 30 years. Remember, China used to have periodic famines. Capitalism works where it is embraced.

Here is another central aspect of my thinking: 99% of the world that wakes up to go to work in the morning makes less than $35,000 per year. If you make $35,000 or more, you are in the top 1% of wage earners in the world. So I consider it extremely ironic to find the world's top 1% in income complaining about the top 1% in relation to themselves and not the world overall.

You might be in the top 1%. Check the calculator:

http://www.globalrichlist.com/

You can keep all of the money, I'd rather have a livable planet, plentiful food and drinkable water.