Comments on: What would you do with $700 billion? http://www.stevebridger.com/2008/09/700-billion/ Builder of Bridges Tue, 03 Jan 2012 14:39:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Gerhard Buttner http://www.stevebridger.com/2008/09/700-billion/comment-page-1/#comment-33 Gerhard Buttner Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:57:46 +0000 http://www.stevebridger.com/?p=35#comment-33 Interesting comparison (and thanks for that oxfam link): obviously too simplistic as you point out, Steve, but it surely shows something is a bit rotten. It reminds me of how quickly Cancun and the Riviera Maya "recovered" after Wilma with a lot of help to rebuild the tourism industry - especially luxury hotels, yet many of the poorest who lost everything of the little they had - which would be immensely much cheaper too replace - are still waiting. One complication: any fairer redistribution work needs to be administrated (VERY NECESSARY - and distributing to millions is much harder work than distributing to a few banks!), and the administrators want to be paid, and want to be paid well, and others want their share of the pie to "smooth the way" (SHOULDN´T BE NECESSARY, BUT A REALITY IN MANY PLACES, that would need to be worked on first - costing even more etc. etc. and those Structural adjustment plans had very harsh yet actually superficial theoretical ways of wanting to solve this - and never did) And unfortunately $1.50 a day is also still poverty even in the poorest nations. http://www.oxfam.org.uk/applications/blogs/pressoffice/?p=1775 has more examples of how much $700 billion is in a poverty context. But the bottom-line: Cracks are showing everywhere in our increasingly unsustainable economic and environmental global order. Interesting comparison (and thanks for that oxfam link): obviously too simplistic as you point out, Steve, but it surely shows something is a bit rotten. It reminds me of how quickly Cancun and the Riviera Maya “recovered” after Wilma with a lot of help to rebuild the tourism industry – especially luxury hotels, yet many of the poorest who lost everything of the little they had – which would be immensely much cheaper too replace – are still waiting.

One complication: any fairer redistribution work needs to be administrated (VERY NECESSARY – and distributing to millions is much harder work than distributing to a few banks!), and the administrators want to be paid, and want to be paid well, and others want their share of the pie to “smooth the way” (SHOULDN´T BE NECESSARY, BUT A REALITY IN MANY PLACES, that would need to be worked on first – costing even more etc. etc. and those Structural adjustment plans had very harsh yet actually superficial theoretical ways of wanting to solve this – and never did)

And unfortunately $1.50 a day is also still poverty even in the poorest nations.
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/applications/blogs/pressoffice/?p=1775
has more examples of how much $700 billion is in a poverty context.

But the bottom-line: Cracks are showing everywhere in our increasingly unsustainable economic and environmental global order.

]]> By: Nick Booth http://www.stevebridger.com/2008/09/700-billion/comment-page-1/#comment-31 Nick Booth Fri, 26 Sep 2008 19:50:38 +0000 http://www.stevebridger.com/?p=35#comment-31 Our banking system has behaved like it is teenage, with someone there to bail it out. We have confirmed that belief - and that's my biggest problem here. Poverty has many causes. One thing that helps people rise out of poverty is a reliable way of storing and exchanging the value built up through effort and knowledge. That's otherwise known as a reliable banking system. Our banking system has behaved like it is teenage, with someone there to bail it out. We have confirmed that belief – and that’s my biggest problem here.

Poverty has many causes. One thing that helps people rise out of poverty is a reliable way of storing and exchanging the value built up through effort and knowledge. That’s otherwise known as a reliable banking system.

]]>