Reply #77: step one [View All]

[melm00se]

define poverty.

Right now it's relative definition.

step two:

Do you measure as a percentage of population or by raw numbers:

if you look at this graph:



the percentage of the population in poverty is significantly lower now than it was in 1959 (down 44%)

but the raw number of people in poverty is down only 7.5%.

One shows a significant improvement but the other shows that there is a lot to do. which is correct?

Step 3: population distribution and economic model.

with any population, overtime the distribution will reflect this curve:



so unless there is constant adjustment, the left hand side of the curve will yo-yo in and out of poverty as the economics of the system as the available "wealth" (another relative term) and the pricing inherent in a supply/demand economic model take hold. Which then brings up these concerns:

- what happens when artificial pressure is applied on the left side of the curve (or for that matter on the right side of the curve)?

- can the system adapt quickly enough and appropriately to avoid creating larger economic issues?

- at what point do you remove the artificial supports at either end of the population distribution curve?

- is the risk of the system "popping" (like a zit) outweighed by the potential benefits?

these are an interesting questions that have a lot of primary, secondary or tertiary effects and because of these wide ranging implications will it require a "disaster" of epic proportions to overcome the political and social intertia to redistribute the wealth in any sort of long term solution?

Historically, the feudal system only really went away to be replaced by a nascent (modern) capitalist model in the 14th century when a series of catastrophic events:

- Climate change (the end of the Medieval "warm" period and the advent of the "little" ice age) which brought about the Great Famine across most of Northwest and Western Europe and with that came low levels of widespread disease (compared to what came, which we will see shortly)
- Population pressures - the above issue coupled with a population boom from the end of the Dark Ages (and it's environmental limits on population) created a situation where there were more people than available food resources
- The Black Death - the spread of Bubonic Plague from the east and it's indiscriminate pattern of death was the final blow.

created an environment where the value and mobility of labor increased dramatically which, in turn, caused the flow of wealth to reverse. Instead of wealth flowing from the peasants to the aristocracy, it reversed and the wealth accumulated by the aristocracy (mainly land wealth but other kinds as well) flowed down to the laboring class.

(but I digress)