tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8770341086445997547.post3397217539065314853..comments2023-10-07T22:37:49.244+13:00Comments on The Hand Mirror: poverty - the solution is politicalkatyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15742280289613450293noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8770341086445997547.post-73601478081889357882011-03-29T03:45:59.416+13:002011-03-29T03:45:59.416+13:00What silly,contradictory socialist tosh.Hong Kong ...What silly,contradictory socialist tosh.Hong Kong and Singapore have little in the way of physical resources yet are rich nations with wealthy populations while Africa,rich in resources, is poor.<br /><br />The current situation is caused by a LACK of free trade and a free market and bloated, interfering governments.<br /><br />Fail...try again.Story of Onoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8770341086445997547.post-19074640764715220182011-03-13T12:10:42.100+13:002011-03-13T12:10:42.100+13:00“By a continuing process of inflation, governments...“By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. By this method they not only confiscate, but they confiscate arbitrarily; and, while the process impoverishes many, it actually enriches some.”<br /><br /><br />John KeynesSimonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8770341086445997547.post-36916046076864697282011-03-10T18:46:38.717+13:002011-03-10T18:46:38.717+13:00really ele, that's the best you can come up wi...really ele, that's the best you can come up with? is this the sort of thing you read to make yourself feel ok about the thousands of children who die each day from starvation?<br /><br />because that stupid piece of analysis doesn't bother to take into account that while wheat is being stockpiled, so is corn and polenta. is doesn't take into account the fact that when prices are, people don't have other choices other than they buy less and they starve. that commentator can't even make the simple logical leap that "they reduce comsumption now" actually means "they don't get enough food to survive". the poor we are talking about don't have potatoes, pasta (mostly made from wheat incidentally, duh), corn, rye and porridge that they can afford in their local markets, as an alternative to the wheat which has become expensive solely due to specualtion. this model basically says that we should let people starve to death now so that there will be fewer to starve to death in future, rather than having to look at what's causing the weather to behave as it is (i'm sure this person would deny all aspects of climate change as well), looking at how we improve distribution of wealth so that people can have enough to eat, how we can work on improving productivity in crop-growing by using research and innovation in this area or any number of methods to tackle the problem of future shortage of supplies.<br /><br />if this isn't the most convoluted way of saying "let them eat cake", then i don't know what is. i didn't know marie antoinette was one of your heroes.stargazerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00430290445762377335noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8770341086445997547.post-44456719494504012592011-03-10T11:03:50.528+13:002011-03-10T11:03:50.528+13:00Susidies hit the poor hardest - artificially boost...Susidies hit the poor hardest - artificially boosting prices for consumers and making it difficult for unsusidised producers to compete.<br /><br />There is an alternative view on speculation though: http://timworstall.com/2011/01/17/food-speculation/Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com