Comments for life-in-asia.info

Comment on Hans Rosling: Asia’s rise — how and when by cherylwens

cherylwens — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 03:41:32 +0000

As I’ve said, matriculation is a tool of capitalism. That’s why you see highly educated engineers slogging for high school dropouts cum entrepreneurs.

Comment on Hans Rosling: Asia’s rise — how and when by ctrlaltdelagain

ctrlaltdelagain — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 03:01:49 +0000

I’m glad TED keeps inviting Hans. Statistics was never this entertaining at university!

Comment on Hans Rosling: Asia’s rise — how and when by permaline

permaline — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 02:55:53 +0000

American and Europian time is gone, done and finished as it is said in the bible. He based it in his theory and it is happening today.

The level of America and Europe will not move any more, instead it will fall.

Today is the Asian time and China will be the dominant country in the world, next is Japan followed by India.

Comment on Hans Rosling: Asia’s rise — how and when by leejae

leejae — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 02:18:09 +0000

@princeofexcess I’d just like to jump into this discussion. Suppose there is a newly immigrant family with a small business and they have a child. And it turns out that the child has a pre-medical condition: asthma — through no fault of the parents or the child. Medication is expensive and so is frequent hospitalization. Eventually, the family has to sell their small business because they can’t afford the costs to take care of the child’s condition.

Comment on Hans Rosling: Asia’s rise — how and when by leejae

leejae — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 01:58:10 +0000

My question to you is the following: what would be the most ethical solution to this problem?

Would it be more ethical for a society to have a pot everyone contributes to so that nobody is left with the burden of unfortunate circumstances that are completely by chance? Is it better for everyone to take care of themselves the more equitable solution? Or is there another?

Comment on Hans Rosling: Asia’s rise — how and when by leejae

leejae — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 01:28:30 +0000

Basic decency can also come from rational thinking. Diseases and other illnesses often happen by pure chance. If 6 logical people were sitting at a table before they were born and they each had to roll a die to see who gets a pre-existing condition would it not be fair for those 6 people to agree that if any one of them got sick everyone would chip in and help out?

Comment on Hans Rosling: Asia’s rise — how and when by leejae

leejae — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 00:56:39 +0000

There are certain cases in real-life economics where monopolies run better than private enterprise. An example is hydro (Canadian electricity). A monopoly can achieve greater economies of scale but there also must be regulation so that the company does not price gouge consumers (Rogers *cough*)

Comment on Hans Rosling: Asia’s rise — how and when by leejae

leejae — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 00:25:22 +0000

You’ve been watching too many Libertarian videos. I suggest reading more about the libertarian philosophies and the context behind their reasoning (historical context, social context, etc) and also reading John Locke would help too. You have an extremely superficial view of what is.

Comment on Hans Rosling: Asia’s rise — how and when by leejae

leejae — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 23:59:11 +0000

I just wanted to reiterate that certain monopolies in CERTAIN industries are able to achieve greater economies of scale (cut costs) than would separate individual companies competing. One reason is because of high fixed costs (digging holes and placing pipes/cables/etc). Governments allow those industries to monopolize/oligopoly because they can do more for society than lots of competing companies.

Comment on Hans Rosling: Asia’s rise — how and when by leejae

leejae — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 23:08:09 +0000

How about this.. Let’s revert society and go back to the good old days when you had to buy insurance for firefighters to put out a fire. Oh the tyranny of socialism!