REPLY Limits to Growth Plan B (SD7014)

[SDMAIL Khalid Saeed]

Posted by  Khalid Saeed <saeed at WPI.EDU>

Gary,

Those are great observations, but there exists considerable variability 
in the performance of social services related policies. I am also not 
sure about the efficacy of micro-finance. I think it is a great 
innovation that substitutes financial collateral with social collateral 
for a banking system allowing it to reap high interests (often >20%) 
from short term loans to the poor. The micro-finance institutions are a 
growing industry but the new transfer stream they are creating from the 
poor to the rich may neither help to alleviate poverty nor curtail 
industrial growth in the long run (my apologies to nobel laureate 
Mohammed Yunus).

I am thinking about the carrying capacities that might sustain high 
fertility rates and industrial growth. Those sustaining fertility might 
reside in the social/economic norms that value children - like prestige, 
tax deductions, extended family arrangements, religion, etc. Those 
sustaining industry might reside in the financial system that forms a 
positive feedback with industry. If we can precisely identify such 
societal/technological/economic carrying capacities, we might be able to 
find ways to change them.

Khalid
Posted by  Khalid Saeed <saeed at WPI.EDU>
posting date  Thu, 8 May 2008 15:34:27 -0400