90% of My Skills Are Now Worth $0

Re:90% of My Skills Are Now Worth $0 by kingstoned on Wednesday April 19, 2023 @10:20AM (#35628518)

The bottom billion are mostly self-sufficient farmers or hunter-gatherers. Money is only relevant in an interconnected modern economy. A small tribe of hunter-gatherers or a small farming village has a GDP of 0, but they have the basics covered.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:90% of My Skills Are Now Worth $0 by pjc50 on Wednesday April 19, 2023 @11:07AM (#35629077)

There are basically zero hunter-gatherers left except in national parks in a few places; like elephants and tigers the farmers and settlers tend to hunt them to extinction given the chance.

Even the bottom billion are probably a lot more incorporated into the state than you would expect.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:90% of My Skills Are Now Worth $0 by sjducb on Wednesday April 19, 2023 @11:09AM (#35629112)

This is true until they need something from the outside world. Having no money is a problem if you need a doctor.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:90% of My Skills Are Now Worth $0 by slothtrop on Wednesday April 19, 2023 @11:48AM (#35629676)

They (hunter-gatherers) would be the first to tell you they don't need something from the outside world.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:90% of My Skills Are Now Worth $0 by shellfishgene on Wednesday April 19, 2023 @03:26PM (#35632234)

The hunter-gatherer who finds out it takes a dentist 20 minutes to make his year long toothache go away will quickly disagree.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:90% of My Skills Are Now Worth $0 by slothtrop on Wednesday April 19, 2023 @04:17PM (#35632798)

There are cruder means to get rid of tooth aches. You can't think of a better example than that?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:90% of My Skills Are Now Worth $0 by sjducb on Wednesday May 03, 2023 @08:55AM (#35801825)

I just visited a tea plantation where the average salary was about $2.50/day and people were raising kids on that. The average per person is less than $2/day.

Those people know about the outside world, send their kids to school and are aware that they can't afford to go to the doctor.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:90% of My Skills Are Now Worth $0 by slothtrop on Wednesday April 19, 2023 @11:49AM (#35629686)

In large part farmers.

Their lifestyle encompasses what seems to be romanticized by primitivist anarcho-communists and other radical leftists. If the only thing missing in this picture is "hospitals", then it has nothing to do with their wages.

The crowd that bemoans consumerism and proselytizes that we "don't need" x/y/z also thinks that these independent farmers, who mostly don't participate in global trade (the poorest, I mean), need more money. Not to be conflated with what UN defines as "extreme poverty" which entails inability to provision food effectively. And the way they want to give them money, is through the benevolent progressive imperialism of Communist takeover.

[ Parent | on HN ]