Comments on: Hitting Rice with Sticks http://jonathanstray.com/hitting-rice-with-sticks Information, Culture, and Belief Sat, 19 May 2012 04:28:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: admin http://jonathanstray.com/hitting-rice-with-sticks/comment-page-1#comment-850 admin Tue, 15 Jun 2010 19:46:31 +0000 http://jonathanstray.com/?p=24#comment-850 Take all those people hitting rice with sticks. Train 2% of them to be mechanics. Have those people run rice-hulling machines to make enough rice for everyone. The other 98% can now work on something else, something that can be traded for something other than rice. It's a question of hour much each hour of human labor can produce in terms of living standards. If half of the population is doing manual labor just to eat, there's not going to be much of value to trade with other countries, and the country will stay poor. Of course, this is all easier said than done. As you point out, there are many vicious cycles keeping these people poor. For example, who pays for that education? And who pays for those machines? And how does the wealth from technological upgrades get distributed? - Jonathan Take all those people hitting rice with sticks. Train 2% of them to be mechanics. Have those people run rice-hulling machines to make enough rice for everyone. The other 98% can now work on something else, something that can be traded for something other than rice.

It’s a question of hour much each hour of human labor can produce in terms of living standards. If half of the population is doing manual labor just to eat, there’s not going to be much of value to trade with other countries, and the country will stay poor.

Of course, this is all easier said than done. As you point out, there are many vicious cycles keeping these people poor. For example, who pays for that education? And who pays for those machines? And how does the wealth from technological upgrades get distributed?

– Jonathan

]]> By: FIrtune http://jonathanstray.com/hitting-rice-with-sticks/comment-page-1#comment-848 FIrtune Tue, 15 Jun 2010 15:46:12 +0000 http://jonathanstray.com/?p=24#comment-848 "In Africa, they’re still hitting rice with sticks. I don’t know if this is good or bad, but it does make them poor." uh, no. they're poor so they can't simply BUY white rice from the grocery directly. you have it ass backwards. “In Africa, they’re still hitting rice with sticks. I don’t know if this is good or bad, but it does make them poor.”

uh, no. they’re poor so they can’t simply BUY white rice from the grocery directly. you have it ass backwards.

]]> By: Jonathan Stray » Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s “Home” is Beautiful, Idealized http://jonathanstray.com/hitting-rice-with-sticks/comment-page-1#comment-515 Jonathan Stray » Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s “Home” is Beautiful, Idealized Sun, 28 Jun 2009 04:26:24 +0000 http://jonathanstray.com/?p=24#comment-515 [...] season.”  We follow to wooden pinasse boats and the grass huts of herders, and African women hulling rice with sticks. The music swells, cue [...] [...] season.”  We follow to wooden pinasse boats and the grass huts of herders, and African women hulling rice with sticks. The music swells, cue [...]

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