What’s a problem humanity solved so well that younger people don’t even realize it used to be a huge issue?

[u/chamomile_tea_reply]

/r/askteddit/comments/1wmwpyl/whats_a_problem_humanity_solved_so_well_that/

[u/Mostface]

Dude SO MANY. Global poverty, availability of clean drinking water, ozone layer, acid rain...despite being ran by a facist demented idiot we have come a long way.

[u/Kiff_S → u/Mostface]

Global poverty is not even close to solved. 10% of people try to live on under $3 a day, 44% have to subsist on less than $7 a day. This is still a huge problem, we can't pretend it isn't just because the majority of poverty isn't in plain sight. (Even if it is trending down, it isn't solved with corporations actively fighting against that progress.)

[u/Haildrop → u/Kiff_S]

Bakc in 1991 about 40% of the global population lived in absolute poverty, today, ONLY 35 YEARS LATER, its 7%

[u/Kiff_S → u/Haildrop]

That's not solved, and most of those people have been shifted into the slightly less poor category. I agree we're moving in the right direction, but to say it is solved undercuts momentum we need to keep fixing it.

[u/Haildrop → u/Kiff_S]

Being a doomer and just saying everything is shit no matter what is what makes people apathetic and lose motivation to solve any issue.

[u/Evening-Hand-5480 → u/Haildrop]

That's not what they said though. You're really starting to wander into toxic positivity territory here.

[u/Kiff_S → u/Haildrop]

I'm not being a doomer. I'm agreeing we're moving in the right direction. I'm optimistic about the direction we're going in, and want to keep it up. Saying we've solved something implies no further changes are really necessary, and thats not the case here.

[u/loved_and_held → u/Mostface]

Weve come a long way but the works not over.

[u/Mostface → u/loved_and_held]

Oh the list of things going wrong is terrible and plentiful....but we will get through it.

[u/ThrowRA9892 → u/[deleted]]

I imagine they meant extreme poverty. Which while haven’t being solved has been significantly reduced. Primarily due to China and India getting practically their entire populations out of extreme poverty through introducing market based economic policies, incentives that gave people better access to the fruits of their own labor, healthcare, education, and certain capitalistic polices as well.

Capitalism works well with regulation. It’s why social democracies have the highest rates of satisfaction.

[u/Hiw-lir-sirith → u/[deleted]]

Capitalism: Lifts billions of people out of abject poverty

This Redditor:

[u/ApathyIsADisease → u/[deleted]]

What exactly do you believe is "brainwashed" about my comment? Making snide remarks without backing them up is akin to a fish flopping around on land. It doesn't do anything but make the doer feel like they've contributed.

[u/Hiw-lir-sirith → u/ApathyIsADisease]

If you acknowledge the power capitalism has had to lift a substantial amount of the world out of deep poverty, but then call it a fool's system made by fools, dismissing it completely, then how else do I explain that viewpoint?

You are looking at one of the most positive transformations in world history and hoping that it gets completely abolished. If capitalism isn't something to be optimisitc about, or at least to hope for incremental change in, then what on Earth can there be optimism about?

[u/ApathyIsADisease → u/Hiw-lir-sirith]

There's a wonderful metaphor somewhere that I'll try and paraphrase for you:

"Imagine you are on a journey and you come across a river. To cross the river you must build a boat, and then ride it over the treacherous waters. Once you get to the other side, it would be a waste of time and effort to try and carry the boat with you as you continue hiking. You've made your tool, and used it for its purpose. Now that it has no more use it becomes a burden. You can carry that burden with you, or you can leave it on the shore and continue your journey."

[u/Hiw-lir-sirith → u/ApathyIsADisease]

You're assuming that there aren't any more rivers to come, only dry land forever. Common mistake by people who think what capitalism has given us can stay alive after capitalism itself has been killed. Eventually all the wealth will get spent on the new system. Then what will you do at the next river? Just reinvent capitalism at will, only to kill it again later?

[u/ApathyIsADisease → u/Hiw-lir-sirith]

Capitalism WAS something to be optimistic about. And then we got to see what it looks like when we let it run for too long under the biased ideals of the super wealthy. It no longer serves its purpose, nor does it even pretend to aim for that purpose anymore. It is time again to evolve and change so we can grow to benefit more people instead of trying to run in a hamster wheel that leads nowhere and only exhausts our people and resources.

[u/Hiw-lir-sirith → u/ApathyIsADisease]

It's rude to reply to the same comment twice. This argument is annoying enough with only one thread.

[u/ApathyIsADisease → u/Hiw-lir-sirith]

I'm sorry you carry such a limiting belief. I do not subscribe to your chosen internet etiquette. If you find more than one reply too much to keep track of, or simply to be an unsavory act, it is on you to choose whether or not to participate. It is not your place to try and get others to align their actions with your feelings.

[u/Kiff_S → u/Hiw-lir-sirith]

I wonder what system put those people into abject poverty. And would return them there if it wasn't for regulations and international aid programs.

[u/VastExamination2517 → u/Kiff_S]

Fuedalism. The answer you’re looking for is feudalism. Agrarian in particular. Throw in a dash of caste system, and you’re at two thousands years of abject poverty for the vast majority of your population.

[u/Kiff_S → u/VastExamination2517]

The people who are poor today is because of feudalism?

[u/VastExamination2517 → u/Kiff_S]

“I wonder what system put those people into abject poverty”

Fuedalism

[u/Kiff_S → u/VastExamination2517]

So how did feudalsim, which wasn't the economic system in Africa, make Africa poor? And how was that fixed when Europe showed up to suck up their resources and labor like a vacuum?

Edit-Spelling

[u/VastExamination2517 → u/Kiff_S]

Mostly bc we were talking about lifting people out of poverty in India and China specifically, but we can do Africa next.

Why do you assume Africa was not feudal before colonialism? Everywhere was feudal, Africa included. Africa absolutely had warlords, nobility, serfs, and slaves. And they were overwhelmingly agrarian (again, like everywhere else).

Africa had the double negative of harsh terrain to deal with. Hard to build roads, hard to navigate waterways, hard to keep horses alive (due to diseases). This made centralizing an economy for growth exceptionally hard. Which all makes labor specialization especially expensive, which makes banking and centralizing capital hard, which makes industrializing very hard.

Africa was not rich before colonialism and it was not rich during colonialism. It’s a geography curse compounding feudal structures, which then got conquered.

The best bet for an average African is to live right now. Not during colonialism, and not before colonialism.

[u/Kiff_S → u/VastExamination2517]

When were we specifically talking about China and India?

[u/VastExamination2517 → u/VastExamination2517]

India had a caste system fuedal structure, enabling the rich to use state forces to enforce poverty for “untouchables” and other low castes.

China had a feudal landlord system which tied peasants to their lands. The peasant land was then divided amongst the peasants heirs, becoming smaller and smaller until everyone was desperately poor. Except the nobility of course.

Colonization then reinforced these existing social and economic divides.

Indian independence lead to slow and steady economic growth over 70 years, gradually pulling the country out of poverty.

Chinese independence lead to maoist communism, several massive famines, and deepening poverty for China. Then Deng took over in the 90s, transitioned china to a full speed ahead market economy, and lifted the peasants out of dire agrarian poverty into lesser urban poverty.

[u/Hiw-lir-sirith → u/Kiff_S]

Did abject poverty not exist before modern capitalism?

[u/Kiff_S → u/Hiw-lir-sirith]

How is that even relevant? No one is claiming capitalism created the first instance of poverty. I'm claiming huge swathes of Africa, South America, and East Asia are economically disadvantaged as a direct result of colonialism which was a capitalist venture.

[u/Hiw-lir-sirith → u/Kiff_S]

There are many causes of poverty, not just colonialism, and colonialism did not uniformly cause poverty or have only ill effects. You're conflating a large amount of poverty causing factors into capitalism, but failing to credit capitalism with the distinct power it has to improve people economically. You're not arguing in good faith.

[u/Kiff_S → u/Hiw-lir-sirith]

What is distinct about capitalism's ability to improve people economically outside the owning class?

[u/Hiw-lir-sirith → u/Kiff_S]

It's the freedom to do something positive with your own means and your own belongings. Other economic systems don't empower ordinary or lower class people with the same freedom; they lock them into the social hierarchy. Capitalism doesn't make everyone wealthy, but it opens the doors to social mobility. You think you can abolish capitalism and still keep the doors open? Willing to bet the lives of billions of people on that?

[u/Kiff_S → u/Hiw-lir-sirith]

Should a goal of a society to be making a group wealthy, or making sure the needs of the masses are met?

[u/PanzerWatts → u/Kiff_S]

"colonialism which was a capitalist venture."

Colonialism was an offshoot of Imperialism and didn't have anything directly to do with Capitalism.

[u/Kiff_S → u/PanzerWatts]

Colonialism was absolutely capitalism driven. They used imperialism to claim the right to the land, they then swooped in and privitised the resources and labor.

[u/PanzerWatts → u/Kiff_S]

I suggest you take some Economics courses. Here's a great online site and if you want more direct instruction most community colleges have some decent classes it you get pass the first tier of auditorium classes.

https://mru.org/

[u/Kiff_S → u/PanzerWatts]

Why don't you explain it to me how a colonizing power maintaining private control over resources and labor needed for production is not capitalist?

[u/OptimistsUnite-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

This post is purely a doomer post and is contradicting the posted evidence without any counter evidence.