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0 pointsintended7y ago0 comments

Extrme poverty is a razors edge from just poverty, and that growth has been driven by magic substances like plastic.

A classic example of economic growth innovation in price sensitive India is the single use detergent sachet- each of those represents an improvement in cleanliness and hygiene for people who couldn’t afford it before.

Now increase the cost of plastic, even marginally and that change reverberates down the product chain.

Everything from medicine packaging, to Saran Wrap to those single use sachets change in price.

However, the correct point is that if we don’t do anything, what will happen to that number? Is it truly conceivable that climate change will not send more people into poverty eventually?

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njarboe7y ago

Why do you think the plastic production has much to do with CO2 emissions? While it takes energy to produce the oil and transform it into plastic, if that energy is CO2 free, producing plastic won't put CO2 into the atmosphere. Unless there is some trick to plastic manufacturing that requires blasts CO2 into the air like steel production does that I am not aware of.

beat7y ago

The thing is, it's not just "a razor's edge from just poverty". If you use Hans Rosling's four-part income definition, "just poverty" represents a 4x increase in income from "extreme poverty". For Americans who might make hundreds of dollars a day, the difference between a dollar a day and four dollars a day may not seem like much. But imagine instead what it would be like to change from $100k/year to $400k/year. That's the ratio, but the effects are even greater than that.

It's access to some rudimentary health care. It's maybe a bicycle for transportation. It's a gas stove so you no longer have to use firewood to cook (speaking of deforestation...). It's maybe getting a cash-paying job so you can quadruple your income again.

TeMPOraL7y ago

> A classic example of economic growth innovation in price sensitive India is the single use detergent sachet- each of those represents an improvement in cleanliness and hygiene for people who couldn’t afford it before.

Maybe I'm not western enough, but I can't understand that thing. How is a single-use detergent sachet an improvement over good ol' powder? Do you have any articles discussing it?

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