Are you willing to reduce your standard of living by 50% - or even 10%?
Alleviating mass poverty in a zero sum world
The consensus amongst the barnyard animals is that the world is unfair and that we need to strive to improve the lot of those living in the third world.
They are also incensed that the USA and their vassal states known as NATO constantly meddle and often invade weaker nations installing flunkies who help them plunder resources in exchange for a piece of the action.
Be Careful What You Wish For
We have over 8 billion humans on this planet who would like to live in a nice house, own a car, attend decent schools, pile a trolley full of food at well-stocked supermarkets, enjoy quality medical care, go on vacation from time to time, drive on smooth roads, and enjoy the benefits of living in a country that has rule of law.
The majority of the 8+ billion have none of the above. But they cannot have it because there are not enough resources on the planet to allow 8+ billion humans to live large like we do.
Okay, nobody believes they can live that large but at the bare minimum we would want them to have enough to eat, education, a reasonable home, some medical care, and a job.
This is a zero sum game - if we were willing to share the planet’s limited resources with the billions of slum dwellers around the world, those of us in the affluent nations need to be willing to reduce our standard of living dramatically because the majority of the world’s population living in poverty dwarves the haves.
Who is willing to accept a 50% reduction in their standard of living? I see no hands.
Who is willing to accept a 10% reduction in their standard of living?
Before you thoughtlessly put your hand up, you first have to agree to report to HR tomorrow morning and instruct the manager to dock your pay by 10% and donate the money to UNICEF.
The truth of the matter is that we are infatuated with living large. We all want more.
If you disagree then go back to the HR manager and tell them you prefer not to have a salary increase this year because you have more than enough and a wage hike will only enable you to buy more.
War is Necessary
I have been mulling an off the beaten path destination for my next end of the world bucket list trip. My fascination with Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and screen adaption Apocalypse Now as well as reading King Leopold’s Ghost lead me to research the feasibility of a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Extensive reading on the security situation made me realize that that visiting the DRC was a bad idea and that travelling there had the potential to make me miss the Covid Main Event.
I did contact one of the few agencies that could organize a trip to one of the poorest nations on the planet and was presented with this itinerary:
Day 1: Arrival in Kinshasa and transfer to your hotel
Day 2: Connecting flight to Kisangani and transfer to your hotel
Day 3: Full day tour of Kisangani including Wagenia Falls
Day 4 - 5: Visit Yangambia Old Belgian Research Center in the forest as well as other river stops by boat
Day 6: Back to Kisangani in the afternoon and overnight
Day 7: Flight back to Kinshasa, transfer to your hotel
Day 8: Departure with airport transfer
We can set up the above for 7,550 USD per person.
That works out to USD2500 per day for the 3 days that actually involve seeing the sights and sounds of strife torn DRC. When I enquired as to the exorbitant cost I was informed that ‘security is expensive.’ It would make sense not to nickel and dime your minders in a failed state whose citizens generally hate Whitey.
The DRC, in particular Katanga province, is a resource rich nation that has been plundered by western mining companies for decades. And before BHP and Rio Tinto stole the Congo’s resources, the Belgians enslaved the Congolese forcing them to harvest rubber. If they failed to meet their quotas, or they ran away, their hands were cut off - their wives, who were kept in prison camps by the Belgians, were raped and beaten.
At the end of the day the Congolese are weak and disorganized making them susceptible to being raped of their valuable resources. I am sure there are some well-intentioned folks in the Congo who wish they had F16’s, Abraham tanks, and nuclear tipped cruise missiles that they could use to fend off the armies that back BHP and Rio Tinto. Make no mistake, they’d use them in a heart beat because they want to live large like we do (their fall back is sticking an AK47 in a tourist’s face and demanding he hand over his phone and wallet). And the only way to achieve this is to get a seat at the table using the threat of violence, and negotiate fair royalty deals.
‘Yes! Yes that is what we want!’ scream the DelusiSTANIS. ‘We can’t sleep cuz our beds are burning… it belongs to them let’s give it back!’
The rare earths used to manufacture the computer or mobile phone you are reading this article on are courtesy of theft from the DRC. If BHP and Rio Tinto actually had to pay royalties to the DRC for their rare earths and fair salaries to those who work the mines, perhaps the price of your electronic devices would double. Would you be okay with that?
Keep in mind that if we were to pay royalties on all resources plundered from all countries you would soon be bankrupt.
We also need to consider that in this zero sum world the other big powers, China and Russia, would be more than happy to get their greedy hands on the resources of the DRC. The reason they don’t meddle in the neighbourhood staked out by the Americans is the same reason Mafia organizations tend to stay out of each others territories - fear. Fear of the big stick. Nobody wants to fight a war they expect to lose.
Conclusion
Those of you insisting war is not necessary and believe that we should try to lift the billions living in vile slums out of poverty need to acknowledge your hypocrisy. You need to continue to toss a few coins into the OXFAM box after paying for the fat trolley of delicacies, and accept that this is the way the world works.
It cannot change.
It will not change.
Admit it - you do NOT want it to change.
You are not about to take a significant hit to your magnificent lives to improve the lot of the poor.
So stop bleating on and shut the fuck up.
Related
If cheap oil was infinite and "super easy to get at", then the USA would not have overthrown Saddam Hussein, stolen Syria's oil, overthrown the Libyan government and so on. In fact dwindling resources are why the USA started a shit-show in Ukraine. It was to weaken and breakup Russia so they could get their oil. Why is this a fact? Because US Senator Lindsey Graham admitted there are trillions of dollars worth of Russian oil they want.
There's a big, big difference between running out of oil and having oil that powers an economy. If we still had massive amounts of oil, then we would not be wasting our time with Shale, Tar Sands and Off-Shore drilling.
Individuals who think oil grows on trees need to understand that it is the "cheap oil" which powers and grows the economy and not just oil. When oil becomes harder to get at, it costs more to extract. When it costs more to extract, the price goes up. When the price goes up, it is passed onto the consumer. When it is passed onto the consumer, the consumer cuts back on other things that grow an economy. When the consumer begins to cutback on purchases because it went towards buying fuel, it takes it away from the economy and the economy begins to go in reverse.
When the economy goes in reverse, demand for oil drops and the price for it on the market drops. When it drops the producers have lower profits vs their investments and have less incentives to extract it.
That's where we are today. We are now at the point where oil is priced too low for the energy producers and too high for the average consumer. That's where finite resources comes into play. You can continue to kick the can down the road but then you risk collapsing your economy, such as Germany, France and other EU nations.
tl;dr We live in a finite world.
We truly are already in WWIII. It's everyone against everyone..lol