Generally, poverty can be summed up into the absence of six things: adequate nutrition, clean drinking water, access to health care, good education, legal assistance, and sanitary sewage disposal.
500 million people do not have these basic commodities.
Thus began the talk from William Bissel, hugely successful Fab India CEO and political theorist, or perhaps "solutionist". He went on to share his theories of, "How to Eliminate Poverty in India in 1000 Days" leading us through a number of inspirational and thought provoking points that leave one wondering why it has yet to be implemented.
The main thesis of his presentation was his suggestion that within 5-10 years, we would be living in a cashless society, and that each citizen would instead be issued a chip card that can be used to geo-track, monitor citizen's income, and determine which of those citizens are living below the poverty line based on their Aggregate Economic Activity (AEA).
In theory, a cashless system would eliminate black market goods because there would always be a way to trace illicit materials to source on an entirely electronic system, and can also be used to implement a system of vouchers which would be used in exchange for one of the six aforementioned determinants of poverty. This series of vouchers would eliminate poor goods, as few people would choose those not worth exchanging for, and would thus heighten demand for the better goods, making them cheaper.
Sounds simple enough.
While brilliant, and hugely beneficial to society in theory, the question is this: do you trust your government enough to put your money in their hands?
500 million people do not have these basic commodities.
Thus began the talk from William Bissel, hugely successful Fab India CEO and political theorist, or perhaps "solutionist". He went on to share his theories of, "How to Eliminate Poverty in India in 1000 Days" leading us through a number of inspirational and thought provoking points that leave one wondering why it has yet to be implemented.
The main thesis of his presentation was his suggestion that within 5-10 years, we would be living in a cashless society, and that each citizen would instead be issued a chip card that can be used to geo-track, monitor citizen's income, and determine which of those citizens are living below the poverty line based on their Aggregate Economic Activity (AEA).
In theory, a cashless system would eliminate black market goods because there would always be a way to trace illicit materials to source on an entirely electronic system, and can also be used to implement a system of vouchers which would be used in exchange for one of the six aforementioned determinants of poverty. This series of vouchers would eliminate poor goods, as few people would choose those not worth exchanging for, and would thus heighten demand for the better goods, making them cheaper.
Sounds simple enough.
While brilliant, and hugely beneficial to society in theory, the question is this: do you trust your government enough to put your money in their hands?
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