Slashdot Mirror
Space Vs. Poverty Debate In India
MarkWhittington writes "Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was obliged recently to defend his country's space program, which involves the spending of billions of rupees when India still has a large number of people living in abject poverty. The debate raging in India parallels a similar one that has simmered in the United States for decades."
The modern world is like a game of Civ III where everyone has the Great Library. Any important piece of research discovered somewhere will be usable by everyone at practically the same time. Oh, you might have to pay a little more for it than if you had discovered it yourself, or you might be 20 years behind everyone else, but you'll reap the benefits soon enough. Not everyone on the planet needs to be a creator for the system to work, I don't see why that shouldn't be true on a national level as well.
The more you provide for the poor, the bigger the poor class becomes. It is very unfortunate, and the simple statement of this observation comes dangerously close to suggesting that if we just let the poor starve to death then everyone would be better off (which isn't true for many reasons, the least of which being the inescapable crime wave that would result).
But whether we like them or not, the facts remain factual. Poverty is not created by an imbalance of government spending, and it will not be cured by a proper balance. The proper balance of providence is important, but in order to be a "balance," it must include spending on things that actually bring new technologies to mankind.
People who really want to help the poor beyond what the government can afford can spend their own money doing it. If they don't want to do this, then I question the authenticity of their demands that other people's tax money must be used for this purpose.
You are so full of s*$t it comes out of your fingers when you type. I have lived in India and you cannot compare the poor (rich by Indian standards) in America with the poor in India. As you point out in America you can make yourself better off. Even if not everyone does, it is possible through hard work to get out of poverty in America. This is simply not true in India. Social systems that have existed for thousands of years continue to keep the vast majority of Indians poor. If you are born to the wrong caste in the wrong part of the country then no matter how smart or hard working you are you will not rise above. God help you if you are an orphan or single woman. Those parts of society are simply beggars with no other prospects. Please keep your work hard and make good ideas limited to places where that is in fact true.
No sigs in BETA. Beta SUCKS.