The ONE campaign

[jolo78957]

For those of you who haven't already heard, the ONE campaign is a campaign to put 1% more of the federal budget towards ending, poverty and AIDS. There is a petetion that has already shown its effectiveness, the poor countries of Africa were forgiven there debt. Sign the petetion http://one.org

For those who say one signature won't make a difference, maybe you're right but think about it. Taking one minute of your time to sign is 100% more likely to make a difference than not signing it.


Please Sticky this

[Flamekebab]

...

Wouldn't I have to be American?

I don't see a sticky in the future..

[Stewsburntmonkey]

I don't like the idea that we should just keep throwing money at these problems. Most things don't respond all that well to having things thrown at them, even if those things are billions of dollars. I would much rather see a real effort to come to some understanding of what it would take to get every nation in the world to a point where it can sustain a high quality of life for all citizens. Continuing to subsidize poverty only serves as a very expensive band aid. It will be far cheaper in the long run to do what it takes to work on fixing the underlying issues of economic and social failure.

Just for those wondering 1% of the US budget is $23 billion (US billion).

[doormat]

Yeah. I call that "blairconomics". The last election over here was full of it.

"What are you doing about X, prime minister?"
"I'm glad you asked. My govenment has invested Y in programs to takle X, which is Z times more than the conservatives over the same period!"

Hmm... And when Jack's mother had nothing in the pantry, Jack went to market and spend everything they had! Pity he bought magic beans, huh?.


It's not enough to spend money on a problem, you need to solve the problem. If that costs money, fine, but setting targets for spending is not productive. Look at the NSPC (an english charity): they spend very little on actualy helping children, but have one of the largest incomes of any charity. How does that work? Why, those prime-time television ad slots don't come cheap! Raising awareness! Raising the profile of the issue! (And the profile of the board members, thus making it easier for them to move on to the priviate sector...) Stupid. You want to fix something, then make that your target - however much it costs.

[Ozymandias IV]

Hmm... And when Jack's mother had nothing in the pantry, Jack went to market and spend everything they had! Pity he bought magic beans, huh?.

Yes, but look what became of those magic beans.

[Deepsmeg]

Heinz covered them in tomata sauce and sold them.

[Mas Tnega]

With less beans that go into a can, no less.

[ODDin]

"Don't give a man a fish, teach him how to fish."


Any place I can sign a petition against that program?
I'm not American, but anyway...

[FrostShard]

"Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. But set him on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life."

[sir hackalot]

The main issue as i see it, is and lets face it, they just live in a crappy part of the world.

If you live in a country that is constantly blighted by drowts. Then your crops are going to fail. Add in war and famine into the situation then your farmers are not going to be fit enough to farm.

What the governments and the agencies of the world need to do is find another way for these countries to provide for themselves and there families which doesnt rely on unpredictable outcomes such as farming.

[doormat]

Not sure I'd have put it like that, but yeah. Development requires surplus product, and when you live in africa, that's hard to come by. Hence the fact that europe developed first. The only true solution would be absolute globalisation: let everyone specialise on a global scale. I'm not a farmer, but I'm not starving. Britain doesn't grow enough food to feed ourselves, but we're not starving. America grows tons more food than it needs, but doesn't produce a fraction of the manufactured goods they use. Yet they all have VCR's.

Open Free Trade. That's the way forward!

(Stews will now quote Boumols "profit motive" theory and claim that the principle of competitive advantage can exist only where goods are analogous. Go boil your head. Free Trade Rules! )

[Stewsburntmonkey]

Heh, I actually studied at NYU (where Baumol is a professor).

It’s really amazing when you look at it how Europe has consistently had the proper surpluses at the right time. Economic development requires certain resources at each step and Europe tended to always have those resources or had goods it could easily trade for those resources. Many other areas have far richer resources, but they lack the diversity of resources that allowed Europe to develop so well economically.

Anyway I actually totally agree that it is foolish to try and grow wheat in a desert or build a car factory on a flood plain. Countries like the US that has an abundance of arable land should grow crops on it and countries with arid land should build factories. That is not to say the US should be a purely agrarian economy or that other nations should be purely manufacturing economies, but economies should fit the resources of the nation.

[sir hackalot]

well it does make sense, but surely someone has already thought of this. And its not been done yet so perhaps its not such a viable idea as we think it is.

[Stewsburntmonkey]

The major problem is that it would cost a good deal of money a modern factory is hugely expensive (some of them run into the billions of dollars). Companies would have to setup offices in various nations, people would have to be trained, infrastructure would have to be setup, etc.

However the biggest issue is political. The US public is already very concerned about companies moving offices to China and India. Any politician who advocated moving more factories (and thus jobs) to other nations would never have a hope of being elected in the current environment.

[doormat]

Yeah, it's barriers to the free movement of captial. Taxes, laws, politics: it's very hard to establish globaly. Or at least it used to be. We're starting to see it now with the WTO nations. I mean, what country is McDonalds in? (Yes, I think "head office" is in the US, but that's purely arbritory now. They pay taxes in every nation they opperate in: it's just a word.)