whythawk ratings: measuring effective development

1.
(Comments)

I\'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 t

2.
(Comments)

...t even dignify it with a response\" so: >South Africa has a mature black lead government >Many of the wealthiest people and surely the newly wealthy are black >Crime is not confined to next to th...

3.
(Comments)

...poor people\'s iPhones. This article is about Zimbabwe. A few short years ago Zimbabwe was one of the wealthiest nations in Africa. Did they get poor because of rich Americans or government corru...

4.
(Comments)

...et; 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 - most of th...

5.
(Comments)

...racting with each other, but there are plenty of alternatives to an economic system that concentrates the wealth among the few, and develops political systems to lock the majority out and refuse them ...

6.
(Comments)

...g environment and ultimately levy significant \\\"taxes\\\". This results in the majority of the realtive wealth generated ending up in the hands of a few who have no contestable right to those procee...

7.
(Comments)

... that we have two overlapping, and occasionally blurred, economies in South Africa. There is plenty of wealth in the informal economy - which is why it exists. All the laws that you mention are ex...

8.
(Comments)

...formal economy is not driven by individuals eking out a living. There is no growth there. It is driven by wealthy individuals who start small businesses and create employment and further wealth. The ...

9. Overcoming the Conservation of Energy
(Analysis/Analysis)

...y economy. A sophisticated and invisible network of connections make the seemingly miraculous process of wealth generation and job creation possible. The system can take a lot of abuse, yet it isn&#...

10. Of Chiefs and Presidents
(Analysis/Analysis)

...o limits to the maximum number of terms a president can stand. Omar Bongo is considered to be one of the wealthiest heads of state in the world. Bongo, Africa's longest serving head of state, has...

11. Jacob Zuma, Inflation Denialist?
(Analysis/Analysis)

... swap their old Z$ 200,000 notes which are being discontinued. Those Zimbabweans must be really, really wealthy. No, they're not. Z$ 50 million is equivalent to less than US$ 7. Anyone attem...

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

... billion people come out of poverty across Asia and Latin America over the past decade. As people become wealthier their diets change. For starters, they eat a lot more meat and protein. It takes 8...

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

...d of a whole bunch of peasant farmers who are now indefinitely tied to their land. Land does not confer wealth creation. House prices have risen steadily over the past decade but not as a consequen...

14. The Miracle of Investment
(Analysis/Analysis)

...roduce, food and crafts. Imagine investing that much in an area far removed from the usual haunts of the wealthy. Imagine, not just the hope, but the conviction that customers will come. I visited i...

15. Killing the Golden Goose, a lesson in Economic Freedom
(Analysis/Analysis)

... discover that, dead, it's just an ordinary goose. The fable is a warning to those who take unearned wealth that is not freely given. It is a lesson few governments in Africa have cared to learn...

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

...ide to buy a second home down here so they can visit whenever they like. However, since they are so much wealthier than the locals, they pay more and drive up prices. We should prevent any non-Capet...

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

...econd economy” and how we must bridge people out of the poverty of the informal sector and into the wealth of the “first economy”.  What happens if the informal sector isn&rsquo...

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

...st of the research is astonishingly mundane.  Who knew that teenaged girls like shoes?  Or that wealthy middle-aged men fancy buying a big-screen TV?  But, if you look beyond the good...

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

...ers. This is important, but it takes attention away from what developing nations can do for themselves. Wealthy nations protest that they have little interest in removing subsidies if they don't...

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

...n forestry reserves. What it does not have is a middle-class tax base which is the only thing that gives wealthy nations and governments legitimacy. Charity used to go directly to aid agencies. Aft...

21. Atlas Shrugged at 50
(Analysis/Analysis)

...pty economy is a worthy demonstration of the world left behind once all the John Galt's leave. "Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think. Then is money made by the man who invent...

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

...ce 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 - most of ...

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

...g over public institutions." Multinational corporations and the bizarre concern of the dominance of wealthy business owners over the poor employed doesn't even come into it in the developing...

24. The efficiency of markets and how protectionism leaves the poor behind
(Analysis/Analysis)

...work in seven-year cycles," says Cohen. South Africa has the peculiarity of half the population and wealth clustered in Johannesburg. Come vacation-time there is a massive coastal migration tha...

25. When equality becomes unfair: South Africa's two economies
(Analysis/Analysis)

...t science, technology, literature, art and innovation have to offer.  These people are the nominally wealthy living idyllic lives that would be perfect save for their concerns about the people &q...

26. Do you hate the poor enough to be charitable?
(Analysis/Analysis)

...raise taxes on the rich, keep our high-standards in place protected by strict rules, and redistribute the wealth to the poor? Governments are famously bad at redistributing wealth. The US spends far...

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

...s Province in Southern Nigeria. The province houses the Niger Delta and is the site of Nigeria's oil wealth. They are one of the largest producers in the world yet more than half of Nigerians li...

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

...can government intend to control this? Or are we heading for a two-tiered system where those literate and wealthy enough to afford Internet access get a different type of news from the rest of South A...

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

...ve their diagnostic capacity. Talk of the digital divide ignores the stability divide.  The US was a wealthy country long before the Internet.  Wealth and stability produced the Internet, no...

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

...e. In India and China, two billion people don't think of themselves as poor. They are certainly not wealthy, but they're pursuing opportunities and growth at a rate almost unprecedented in h...

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

...as a potential market and not as a bottomless pit requiring donations and hand-outs.  The aggregated wealth of the poor is US$ 5 trillion, according to a study conducted on behalf of the World Ba...

32. Racial arguments muddy human rights and the ending of poverty
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ts militants, union friends and class warriors.  Politicians were preoccupied by the distribution of wealth, not its creation.  Strikes were as crippling as taxes.  Industrial jobs were...

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

...ghest levels are often blamed for the perpetuation of poverty and it is useful to have these exposed. As wealth generation moves ever further into the realms of ideas the entanglement of nations gets...

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

...nd of the Second World War.  Far from accelerating their process of development, communism destroyed wealth and opportunities for everyone and drained away their best and brightest. Now we have ...

35. The redistribution of poverty
(Analysis/Analysis)

Governments and social movements the world over often call for the redistribution of wealth; that the people with money and assets should give some of these to the poor.  They believe that it is

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

...vernment will appease the masses sense of poverty and despair by giving them entitlements to redistribute wealth.  Redistributive policies will lead some people into thinking that, since they&rsq...

37. We're from Mars and we want to help: four lessons in development
(Analysis/Analysis)

...one of study in an industry that develops their country Know-how and experience: share the stories of how wealthy nations developed and what was important for that development so that they may learn; ...

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

...be over R 500 billion.  We will be spending about R 100 for every R 1 we make - that is some serious wealth destruction. The economy has seen tremendous increases in property values as investors...

39. Coffee, the miracle of poverty, and other wonders
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ld not be “why are people poor?” but rather:  “why are people rich?”  Wealth is not a miracle; poverty is the real miracle here.  If you consider that, despite...

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

...g and then a gradual realisation that trade between mutually strong communities creates tremendously more wealth and ideas than does one nation conquering another. You could see them pondering ways i...

41. How do we prepare nonprofit organisations for the long term?
(Analysis/Analysis)

...elf-sufficiency is the success they attain through the adoption of best practices. Throughout history the wealthy have supported causes, only the number of wealthy and the level of support have varied...

42. So how exactly do you invest in the Fortune At The Bottom Of The Pyramid?
(Analysis/Analysis)

...that poor people can make excellent suppliers, employees or customers.  In formal markets there is a wealth of data on product movement, price changes, legislative challenges and all sorts of oth...

43. The other losing battle: Africa's war on talent
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ican countries won't have the core group of ambitious, talented locals necessary to create sufficient wealth to create the virtuous circle of stability and growth. ...

44. Is the ownership of property at odds with the needs of the poor?
(Analysis/Analysis)

...s instruction. We talk about the redistribution of land-based property as if this, somehow, makes people wealthy.  The people who earn some of the highest salaries in the world today are hedge f...

45. Does the new Apple iPhone cause poverty?
(Analysis/Analysis)

... increases.  In other words, even though – initially - the iPod will only be affordable by the wealthiest societies in the world, the ultimate effect will be that the new technology will sp...

46. PJ O'Rourke
(Analysis/Quotes)

There is no such thing as a person's "fair share" of wealth. The gross national product is not a pizza that must be carefully divided because if I get too many slices, you have to eat th

47. The poor have never had it so good ... now what?
(Analysis/Analysis)

...t poverty remains as intractable as ever.  Clearly money isn’t the only problem. Money is not wealth.  Neither does it have any intrinsic value.  It is simply a physical reflecti...

48. Poverty: when second best isn't good enough
(Analysis/Analysis)

...k. Poverty is not caused by a lack of infrastructure. That is simply a correlation. The US did not become wealthy because they had an advantage in technology - that came later. Poverty is caused by a ...

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

...ginning and then a gradual realisation that trade between mutually strong communities creates vastly more wealth and ideas than does one nation conquering another. We would be entirely dependent on th...

50. The Responsibility Gap
(Analysis/Analysis)

... the beachfront every evening have stolen all the health from the unhealthy people. The causality between wealth and poverty is not that the rich take anything from the poor; it is that the poor do no...