Geert Lush Wilders

[sasguru]

Looks like minestrone is on the lash now. I look forward to his drunken ranting later.

[OwlHoot]

How is your maths whizz friend? You can ask him the answer to Minestone's question, ...

Surprising as it may seem to you, we don't all rely on imaginary friends for our ideas.

[sasguru]

Surprising as it may seem to you, we don't all rely on imaginary friends for our ideas.

I have no doubt your friend is real, you plagiarisor.

[minestrone]

Your rather silly assumption (one of many) is in splitting the GDP over the whole population.
In reality there will be a rich well-educated section of society - there already is, it will just get bigger - who do most of the running and a majority of poor bottom feeders.
The divide will be more like Victorian Britain probably than a modern European country, but of course that didn't stop Victorian Britain being very successful as a whole .

Anyway having had this conversation with a supposed member of the UK's intelligentsia, I am more sure than ever that we need to be afraid, very afraid

The problem with India is that it has such a fooked up social system where a vast majority are completely closed of from attainment through their caste or gender. Then if you can get past that your competitors are probably bribing you out of the market through a network inbred cousins.

Their economy will never scale up and while countries like South Korea can go from basket case to European level in 2 generations India will always be a mess.

[minestrone]

Looks like minestrone is on the lash now. I look forward to his drunken ranting later.

Yes, that is exactly what I as doing.

[sasguru]

The problem with India is that it has such a fooked up social system where a vast majority are completely closed of from attainment through their caste or gender. Then if you can get past that your competitors are probably bribing you out of the market through a network inbred cousins.

Their economy will never scale up and while countries like South Korea can go from basket case to European level in 2 generations India will always be a mess.

Completely wrong. As usual. Have you been to India recently?
You really ought to get out of your 'hood and travel more you know.

[original PM]

Completely wrong. As usual. Have you been to India recently?
You really ought to get out of your 'hood and travel more you know.

Have you been anywhere in india outside of a large city??

[sasguru]

Have you been anywhere in india outside of a large city??

Why? It won't be the farmers who prove my point. I fully suspect that the vast majority of India will remain poor for a long time.
But if only 1/10th of the population get to European standards (my impression is that 1/20th are approaching that stage now) then it will be a competitor, more so if there's a pool of cheap human resources for that elite to exploit.

[shaunbhoy]

But if only 1/10th of the population get to European standards (my impression is that 1/20th are approaching that stage now) then it will be a competitor

And as is so often the case, your impression is almost entirely wrong.

As minestrone pointed out, the caste system and social structure are hardwired to the extent that the lions share of the wealth stays firmly put in the hands of a fairly static number.

The proportion of those climbing put of poverty is moving at glacial pace if it is moving at all.

You would know that if you had ever spent a decent amount of time working there rather than just rocking up for a few days of carrying your wife's luggage.

[minestrone]

While we are on the subject of inbreeding ( you might want to read this sas before the next time your brother-in-law comes round to 'visit' your wife ) there is some interesting research on how the level of consanguineous marriages in your society predicts the level of democracy you can achieve. When the church banned it in Europe it was the same time as the rule of law and democracy really took off.

SAGE Journals: Your gateway to world-class journal research

India with it's extensive inbreeding still struggles to progress while China with a completely backward political system can massively out perform them over the last 50 years as they are not all humping their cousins.