I don't see this as being offtopic, but you don't have to respond.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Duffman
The U.S. farmer has an abundance of capital in the form of tractors and combines while the Mexican has none and does everything by hand. The American farmer is obviously as productive as a couple hundred Mexican because of his machinery and will receive a higher wage because of it.
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Who is going to be hurt more by increasing oil prices? The American sees productivity solely is terms of the stuff he can accumulate. The American sees his field of corn as a bundle of cash, not as a food source to feed millions of mouths. An American sees gas as $3.60 at "Gas'n'Go," not as the sustenance of our way of life.
After reading your posts and sitting through economics, I have a vague understanding of why the American ditch digger (yes, they exist) makes more then the African ditch digger. I'm just having a hard time understanding why the African puts up with it. The instant you enter the economic rat race is the instant the value of your life is put in material terms.
Hvatum suggests the world would be better off if technology can maintain our way of life and decrease our impact. I think the two are inversely related. Modern day life is only focused on improvement: going faster, making more stuff, cramming more into a day. Maintaining our way of life would eventually require an infinite amount of energy and matter to be available. Alongside infinite efficiency, that is impossible. If you need more stuff all the time, you can't decrease your impact.
What the world needs to understand is that the value of something isn't based solely in its productivity. Whether you are willing to admit it or not, we look down on New Guinea natives for the lifestyle that they've maintained for tens of thousands of years. Their lives are short, labor intensive, quite boring, and non-progressive: Grandson lives exactly like Grandpa.
But what is so bad about the New Guinean way of life? They have lived for
tens of thousands of years! Scientists are predicting the deaths of millions to billions of people in the near future from global warming. Blindly following economics and supporting that decision through technology is only going to bring destruction. The big picture counts, not our flickers of life.
- LostCause