whythawk ratings: measuring effective development

1. Slaves to land, the policies of Land Affairs
(Analysis/Analysis)

...other companies' profits, increased consumption as salaries rose and created a more confident and wealthier middle-class. This middle-class bought houses. They borrowed more money against the va...

2. Black Diamonds and the trouble with statistics
(Analysis/Analysis)

...arketing has come up with a whimsical and compelling brand: the Black Diamonds.  These, they say, are the middle-class black South Africans powering the economy. There are 2.6 million Black Di...

3. Ending poverty means abandoning charity and accepting reality
(Analysis/Analysis)

... can maintain itself through possession of oil or mining or even forestry reserves. What it does not have is a middle-class tax base which is the only thing that gives wealthy nations and governments...

4. Interpreting Emerging Market Risk Curves
(Static Content)

... their lives through vast amounts of new work opportunities; Wealthiest 20%: there is a small, but growing, middle-class as wealth is spread out and away from the political class towards the new m...