whythawk ratings: measuring effective development

1.
(Comments)

...rm of company registration, tax regulations and a legal system - are not suited to their needs. They\'re too expensive to bother with. If the government wants to address the concerns of the informal e...

2.
(Comments)

...ere is plenty of wealth in the informal economy - which is why it exists. All the laws that you mention are expensive and the very barriers to entry that attract traders into the informal market. Co...

3. Electricity Redux - Electricity Quotas Will Work About As Well As Race Quotas
(Analysis/Analysis)

...tes. The simplest way to reduce consumption of any scarce good is to dramatically raise its price. Not run expensive advertising campaigns asking people to use less. If government is really serious...

4. Funding departments instead of people cheats everyone
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ass in 2007, in comparison to the 78.4% at private schools. State expenditure on education is not only more expensive than that of the private sector, but is also of a significantly lower quality. Th...

5. Higher food prices mean downgrading that Turkey to a Chicken
(Analysis/Analysis)

Food prices our outrageous. But you didn't need me to tell you that. According to Stats SA the current inflation rate for vegetables is now 25.6%, and that of grain products – a staple for

6. Searching for objective measures of value
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ir pegged rates, gold was freely traded.  To ensure that continued price of $35 / ounce was extremely expensive and, ultimately, futile. The dollar became extremely overvalued while, despite ...

7. Investment cannot happen if the market isn't private
(Analysis/Analysis)

...stion. After all when Jo'burgers buy property in Cape Town they not only spend money here buying a nice expensive asset but they are also guaranteed to spend more time here supporting our restaur...

8. Black Swans, Cost Overruns and Industrial Tariffs
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ly has two large Cinderella projects: the Gautrain and the 2010 World Cup. Both projects are astonishingly expensive. When the Gautrain was announced in February 2006 it was to cost R 14 billion. ...

9. Getting Home in Zimbabwe: The impossibility of public transport
(Analysis/Analysis)

... average monthly family incomes now ranging from Z$ 1.5 to 2 million most Zimbabweans cannot afford the more expensive private transport services. Most people have no choice but to wait in ever lengt...

10. The future of newspapers II: of shock-jocks and self-made media-stars
(Analysis/Analysis)

...rsial opinions and coverage of the conflict in the Middle East has turned him into a media celebrity. These expensive personalities are being overshadowed by new upstarts from the Internet. More than...

11. Guess which South African cellular company offers the best contract tariffs?
(Analysis/Analysis)

... 382.51 R 637.51 R 892.51 R 1 147.52 Note that, under all circumstances, MTN is the most expensive, while under most circumstances Cell C is cheapest. Cell C and Virgin don't o...

12. Sarkozy's French Election: when elephants fight only the grass gets trampled
(Analysis/Analysis)

...more environmentally friendly. With Europe being protectionist the US has no competition to unbundle its own expensive habits.  Sarkozy is, at the very least, interested in finding common ground...

13. One Laptop Per Child, now costing 75% more ...
(Analysis/Analysis)

I have had an ambivalent attitude to the One Laptop Per Child project ever since Nicholas Negroponte, stumped for an answer on the ultimate purpose of the computer, declared, "... there is no el

14. Unlearning helplessness: how donors reinforce poverty and dependency
(Analysis/Analysis)

...or services received by the rich. Transport costs are higher, food variety is poorer and significantly more expensive. Even so the poor spend R 100 billion a year on goods – surely a market wo...

15. What market is worth R 100 billion a year and is growing at 10.9%?
(Analysis/Analysis)

...bt-defaults into goods dramatically increases costs; infrastructure limits make product support and delivery expensive Either your product can be repackaged to reduce the price dramatically, or it can...

16. Demonstration Health HIV / AIDS Orphanage A
(Ratings Demonstration/Demonstration)

...cared for and their education and well-being is a focus Negative Rating Factors: The cluster is expensive to run and the remoteness of financial scrutiny is leading to inefficiences ...

17. The US$ 5 trillion market at the bottom of the pyramid
(Analysis/Analysis)

...o would have thought that people would ignore the convenience of conversation for preference in sending more expensive short-messages on their cell phones?  Who would have thought that this would...

18. "On your left is an Orc fighting a Troll" - travels in hyper-reality offer lessons for the poor
(Analysis/Analysis)

...re is no lack of ideas around to stimulate even the most barren of minds.  If those businesses seem too expensive to set up then Wikineur.org has dozens of ideas that cost less than $ 100 each t...

19. World Cup 2010 asks for big sacrifices from the poor
(Analysis/Analysis)

...rnment has staked its reputation on a successful World Cup in 2010.  “Success” equates with expensive stadiums the likes of which the world has never seen. The BBC reports that two ...

20. South Africa and China, or why democracy isn't connected to economic growth
(Analysis/Analysis)

...d and there has been precious little on offer. The Europeans are already discovering the bitter lesson that expensive labour rights are wonderful for those who are lucky enough to have jobs, but thos...

21. The Martians Really Care: four points to govern development
(Analysis/Ideas and Challenges)

...ched this stage of development a thousand years ago.  They are corrupt, their systems of governance are expensive and patronising, their infrastructure is nowhere good enough.  This is going...

22. AIDS-related illnesses cost South African businesses up to R 2.2 billion per year
(Analysis/Analysis)

...g an economic impact and it is essential that initiatives taken towards alleviating the HIV/ AIDS are not so expensive that they result in further and unnecessary hardship.  Further reinforcing t...

23. Does Africa need the most expensive school in the world?
(Analysis/Analysis)

...tting up but, as a I asked in a previous post, is this really the most effective use of resources? The most expensive independent schools in South Africa offering the best educations, and including r...

24. X Challenge: Develop the cheapest most effective school
(Analysis/Analysis)

...00 per year this is no cheap solution to educational problems.  Overnight Winfrey has created the most expensive school in South Africa.  A significant step in the right direction is the Te...

25. Is the $ 100 laptop no more than a really expensive light-bulb?
(Analysis/Analysis)

Back in 1997, as a young engineering student, I conducted a cost-benefit analysis on the Freeplay Wind-up Radio, then in early release.  It was being pitched as a low-cost way to bring the wonder

26. How much does a free education cost?
(Analysis/Analysis)

...rdquo; Even given the spurious claim that leadership is something that can be painted on, the academy is an expensive way to achieve its objectives.  The most expensive private schools in the co...

27. What do Richard Branson and Che Guevara have in common?
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ing, they won’t farm.  Communist governments frequently find themselves buying in vast amounts of expensive food that they used to grow themselves from the very capitalist governments they ...

28. Senescence, the death of development
(Analysis/Analysis)

...We reached this stage of development a thousand years ago. They are corrupt, their systems of governance are expensive and patronising, their infrastructure is nowhere good enough. They have terrible ...

29. Lessons in sustainable development
(Analysis/Analysis)

... of getting it, or of its scarcity, increases, so too does the price. Oil cannot run out. It will become too expensive to buy long before the supply ends. And that will encourage us to look for cheape...