Industrializing the Poor...good or bad idea?

One of my favorite writers, Alan Watts, stated in one of his books that our way of helping nonindustrial nations isn't helping. The reason why he states this is because if we aren't happy with what we have, how could we expect them to be happy with it? After we clothe them, feed them, what do we expect them to do? Get caught in the same rat race we are in, buying everything they see on tv, getting jobs they hate to buy shoddy quality material because it too was made by people who hate what they are doing, and playing the I-have-conformed-before-you game?
I believe we should start paying more attention to ourselves before we start helping others.

What are your opinions on this?

 

Industrialization isn't inherently bad.

 

Industrializing the poor would make it harder for us to exploit them, and therefore I am not in favor.

 

Well, I also mean our influence that would come with it.
I think we should leave their culture alone for the most part and not infect it with ours.

 

So funny. I don't know how you do it.

 

The reason our way of helping the developing world isn't helping is because of export sanctions which keep the developing world in poverty, not because they don't want to move up from an agrarian market to an industrial market.

It's not our job to build nations. It is our job to provide fair opportunities to the developing world through fair trade practices.

 

dude you somewhat blew my mind. I've never even thought of that before but I am now intrigued. I need the name of this book

 

Well, the problem with any industrialized nation is that their resource/labor needs far exceed what they are able to produce themselves. Therefore, they need a source of cheap labor and resources to feed the consumerism. Typically, this has only led to the exhaustive use of the lesser country's resources without fair compensation. So, in the end, these lesser countries end up without the resources they once had or the jobs provided by them, and ends up poorer and more polluted than before.

SO, industrializing a nation just moves the exploitation to another place. And, yes, the newly industrialized country always will want more and more, therefore, the net amount of poverty and exploitation grows with the number of industrialized nations.

I don't know that "the never satisfied" argument is a good one for not supporting the industrialization of a nation. If we're doing it, shouldn't they have a right to do the same?

On the otherhand, I do think the argument that the world's finite resources mean that industrializing nations is irresponsible is a good argument. However, like you said, we have to look at ourselves first. We have to change our practices first.

Just my 2 cents

 

"The Book On The Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are" by Alan Watts. It covers a wide variety of things on there. You'll like it.
You can get it on Amazon for a good price.

 

My opinion is that once robots become sophisticated enough to perform the tasks that human workers do then labor will become ridiculously cheap and everyone can live off the labor of the machines.

 

I've spent some time in a village in Thailand where there's no running water and electricity is only in some homes. They collect rainwater in large cisterns.

They all have farms. They share everything and everyone helps out. They know they could go to the city and have all the comforts...and most of the kids go, and some come back. The people I talked to felt sorry for me, never having known how to live naturally and eating chemicals all the time and being just generally ignorant of whats important to know and having a head full of basically useless knowledge.

And I agreed with them, and I'm going back as soon as I can. I want my kids to be able to choose to live here if they want, so I'm raising them in the States and I'll pay for their college. After that, I'm out, and if they have any sense, they'll come work on the farm with me.

We don't need to help the developing world. Most of them live the way they have lived for thousands of years, and they're fine with that. Everyone wants to be rich...but most of them that I've met would rather be free than middle class.

 

awesome, thanks man...I can get it at the library for free

 

Dude, you're about three decades behind. Should be worrying about primitivism among the rich now.

 

Where I am they are unwilling to industrialize.

There is no profit motive for them to industrialize.

The money flows to those in power now and the drug lords really control.

Why complicate things? Bringing in industry would cut down on import taxes that go into the powerful peoples bank accounts.

If the USA wants to do anything it should stay the hell out of other countries affairs.

The USA needs to take care of itself right now.

 

I doubt it. But maybe. I've never seen his books at a library and I've searched far and wide(not really, but i have checked a couple libraries).

 

Not really.

In my experience, people with in less developed countries tend to have much simpler lives, and generally, they seem much, much happier than people in developed countries.

Being happy with leading a simple life does not equal "unmotivated, incapable of keeping pace with the demands of the modern world, and content with their subjugated status as the world's providers of cheap labor and resources."

 

I think the hungry eating the wealthy is a good idea.

 

Thanks for typing all that out.

 

Is a good idea. As long as they don't eat artists. Those are good(sometimes) wealthy people. Just stick to eating politicians, big business owners, and priests of big churches(especially the catholics).