whythawk ratings: measuring effective development

1.
(Comments)

...'m no expert, but I would imagine the resistance to land ownership is due to entrenched models of wealth/power distribution by those already in power. If so, it makes the resulting poverty doubly tra...

2.
(Comments)

...lar, you\'ll see the US is not doing so well. The reason they dominate is because they have the military power. Current US dominance owes a lot to both World Wars, where European economies were dest...

3.
(Comments)

...n economic system based on private ownership of capital\". None of this \"the concentration of economic power in the hands of the few\" doodoo that you bang on about. There is a great new book you...

4.
(Comments)

...what capitalism is (a particular economic system largely characterised by the concentration of economic power in the hands of the few), I hardly think you\'re in any position to write about it....

5.
(Comments)

...rld are economic decisions, and these are not controlled by parliament. That\'s why a strike is more powerful than a vote....

6.
(Comments)

...ing the effects of undemocratic decisions taken by a few people protecting the influence of the rich and powerful.\" I would ask: who elected you? If you\'re so convinced of your moral superiority...

7.
(Comments)

Power corrupts, and governments in absolute power start forgetting that they\'re employs and start thinking they\'re the parents of particularly stupid children.

8.
(Comments)

... that. Is that a result of the ANC swallowing van Schalkwyk & Co, or it is just another incidence of all power tending to corrupt?...

9.
(Comments)

...'m reading Levitt and he\\\'s analysing the economics of the crack trade in Detroit. It is this informal power struggle that seems a hotbed for dangerous crime to me and, if the structures I describe ...

10.
(Comments)

But at least Skype and its founders are forward-thinking in that they always strive to give ultimate power to the consumer instead of to a monopolist (telecom company, government, etc.). - Max

11. The hazard of market dominance
(Analysis/Analysis)

...s only makes a profit from four or five days of every month. If a business loses a working day, through power failures, absenteeism or other unexpected acts, it can cause bankruptcy. The only way to...

12. Netscape, the Internet and Creative Destruction
(Analysis/Analysis)

Governments do not know anything about competition, innovation or the power of individual investment. The best they can offer is collective blame shedding and the waste of taxpayers' money on pop

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

...tt hour. By mid-2000 the companies had accumulated debt of $ 20 billion and were struggling to maintain power levels. Between May 2000 and September 2001 a series of large electricity black-outs dev...

14. Of Chiefs and Presidents
(Analysis/Analysis)

...o have rubbed into many African leaders who, against the wishes of their "subjects," hold onto power; often to the detriment of the nation. What makes one hold onto power? Is it the idea of ...

15. Of Capitalism, Socialist Greed, Poverty and Remaining Silent
(Analysis/Analysis)

... together in fragile, easily destroyed political groupings to fend off the depredations of despotic, all-powerful, capitalists. A quick glance around the planet reveals the opposite. Zimbabwe, North ...

16. This festive season: the accumulating effects of individual activity
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ork for thirty years these effects are important since the grid falls down at peak consumption periods. Power companies are familiar with the network effects of people finishing viewing their favouri...

17. Contradictions resolve in ways you don't intend
(Analysis/Analysis)

...unemployment but 60% of the population earns less than US$1 per day and the country is hardly a regional powerhouse. With three times our population, and despite being the world's eighth largest ...

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

...ulated. No competitors are invited to challenge the sterling services provided by Eskom (thanks for the power-failures last week) or Telkom (thanks for the phone-line-error) or the Post Office (thank...

19. Black Economic Empowerment, like charity, is not investment
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ut legislated BEE South African companies would never invest in black people.” Vuyo Jack, CEO of Empowerdex, speaking at the event, did his best to make the fog of the BEE Codes of Good Practice...

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

... compelling brand: the Black Diamonds.  These, they say, are the middle-class black South Africans powering the economy. There are 2.6 million Black Diamonds, we are told, and their numbers ar...

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

...e, but it is a particularly stupid argument where the goods are not. Large scale generators needed for power production are imported and subjected to massive taxes. This increases the cost of doing...

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

...t the state should do is ignore the informal sector and do their level best to make the formal sector as powerful, dynamic, flexible and simple-to-use as is humanly possible. If I have to spend five ...

23. Scrogues Converse: Open-space, Identity and the Missing Web
(Analysis/Analysis)

...omplexity seem merely to reinforce it. It is this very lack of open-standards that reduces the long-term power of all the new Web 2.0 companies. They make it a choice. You have to give up your old b...

24. Dow Jones, The Wall Street Journal, and Rupert Murdoch
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ly troubled by the incredible amount of consolidation occurring across the American media landscape. The power of the media is swiftly being limited to a few controlling hands, which poses a serious t...

25. Zimbabwe: the Hollow State
(Analysis/Analysis)

...tructure constraints: the general exile of capacity has degraded everything from sanitation, to water to power production, restoring this will take years. Revenge: the desire to revenge past injust...

26. Science gone wrong: when self-delusion leads to death
(Analysis/Analysis)

...e promptly stolen from them through compulsory licensing. Some scientists are even opposed to the "power" of Big Pharma and are, like the characters in John le Carré's Constant G...

27. Everything is coming up Capitalism
(Analysis/Analysis)

...; so France and Germany with their state "champions" 2) Oligarchic - where the bulk of the power and wealth is held by a small number of individuals and families; Russia 3) Big-firm -...

28. The war of informal markets against central states; a bellwether of support
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ther deflate the value of the Zimbabwe Dollar. During the Second World War both the Allies and the Axis powers would distribute fake banknotes to undermine their enemy's currencies. The US did t...

29. Dave Bullard and Graham Knox: "We can't walk on water so why not try wine?"
(Analysis/Analysis)

...y of concrete suggestions. However, this would require that the big manufacturers agree to give up some power. And they don't. This has a knock-on effect into the international market. "W...

30. "Be sure, we will be watching you," the other GB and the pursuit of social justice
(Analysis/Analysis)

...d attack against newspapers. This is the experience of journalists in every country that speak truth to power and embarrass them. There are few politicians anywhere that can face exposure with humil...

31. Start your business in Johannesburg but hire your advisor in Cape Town
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ment is a crucial part of government's strategy to reduce unemployment and increase black economic empowerment. Whythawk has recently completed rating individual small business development consult...

32. Two Frontiers: wars of liberation and of determination
(Analysis/Analysis)

...w of Jacob Zuma – speaking at a congress lunch – "Why does South Africa fail to use its power and influence to check Zimbabwe?" Rebel armies hacked off limbs, carving their i...

33. Nigeria, or the idiots guide to stealing an election
(Analysis/Analysis)

... The election was stolen right from the beginning." Obasanjo started looking for a way to maintain power while not in government. His party, the People's Democratic Party (PDP), called for ...

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

...world run.  Chirac, their outgoing president, hoped that the EU would form the counterbalance to US power.  Much of this was simply smoking his own socks, but it was an attractive idea, part...

35. Government to gag South African bloggers?
(Analysis/Analysis)

...t; Then what, indeed? Anton Harber, Professor of Journalism at Wits University, speaking on the Moneyweb Power Hour declared:  “Every possible media organisation, every editor, every journ...

36. The Jimmy Wales interview: Wikipedia and Lessons in Globalisation
(Analysis/Analysis)

...they spent $ 1 million.  This year they expect to spend $ 2 - 3 million. "We have an extremely powerful and recognised brand," says Wales, "and we would like to carefully see what ...

37. Lawrence Lessig, take note: Digital freedom still needs digital responsibility
(Analysis/Analysis)

...th the prospect of systematic change envisaged by the open-source technology movement. “With great power comes great responsibility,” as Spiderman would have it. Professor Lawrence Lessig,...

38. Jacob's ANC Ladder: the power of the state, the power of the party
(Analysis/Analysis)

...icies the ANC is to pursue is not decided at the ballot box; it's decided behind closed doors by the power-elite inside the party.  And that power-elite is fragmented between the Mbeki frater...

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

...strong home markets, taking on local incumbents and winning! Will your company be overwhelmed by these powerful and ambitious competitors? How do you combine the latest communication technologies wi...

40. Leveraging your good name; the power of a positive credit rating
(Analysis/Analysis)

In the Internet age, when so much information can be gathered about an individual and their behaviour, talk of privacy has become pervasive. One of the central themes of the capitalist age for the la

41. Unions, the leverage of the highly skilled, and the future of work
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ove the lot of employees relative to the rights automatically accorded to the owners of businesses. The power of the unions coincided with a period of rapid industrial transition.  Workers were ...

42. Cricket, corruption and the match-fixing that leads to murder
(Analysis/Analysis)

...le allowing the underlying infrastructure to rot, and blaming poor performance (like the current rolling power-outages) on mysterious third-forces. The same is true of numerous state-monopolies; from...

43. Climate Change: measurement, responsibility and risk
(Analysis/Analysis)

...rofessor of Atmospheric Science, Richard Lindzen. Scientists and analysts are at their most useful and powerful when they are impartial.  When they sacrifice that they discredit not only themse...

44. Aggregation and collaboration: a guide to making money and doing good in poor nations
(Analysis/Analysis)

...t allows individuals to buy their electricity in advance and then punch in a unique code to unlock their power.  Prepaid cellular packages are exceptionally popular as well.  Psitek develope...

45. The Last King, the Centralised State, and Democracy
(Analysis/Analysis)

... is not about regular elections and a centralised state.  What it is about is the redistribution of power towards the individual.  No matter how kind and compassionate a leader is, no matter...

46. The best bridge out of poverty is over the future of cash
(Analysis/Analysis)

...bsp; Their influence on financial markets is profound despite having only limited ability to project its power through numbers of people, or military might. What happens to nations that lack a homoge...

47. The Cold War, Global Warming and the War on Ideas
(Analysis/Analysis)

... not clear which ideology would prevail:  the US with their belief in individual expression and the power of the dynamic tension of freedom of expression and economic competition; or the USSR wit...

48. A story of an African Orphan
(Analysis/Analysis)

... after the little helpless victims of this deadly serial killer. South Africa is not only the economic powerhouse of Africa it also has one of the highest incidences of HIV (Human Immune-deficiency ...

49. "Heads or Tails" ... resolution to a difficult choice
(Analysis/Analysis)

...unskilled workers who will, at the culmination of each public works project, emerge no more skilled or empowered than they were before, and reliant on yet another project offering menial employ. What ...

50. The 'War Against Corruption' starts with ending the 'Culture of Entitlement'
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ive of entitlement.  Any society that feels that some historical slight gives the current people in power a manifest right to give themselves things they have not worked for will also encourage c...