Category: Politics and philosophy

Thoughts about the way the world does work, or should work

Kyoto Treaty takes force

Yesterday, Wednesday 16 February, marked the entry into force of the Kyoto Treaty, designed to control and reduce the global emission of greenhouse gasses.

Of course, the most noteworthy part of the whole thing is that the US, producer of about a quarter of the world’s greenhouse gasses, is not a signatory. Nevertheless, it’s great to see the EU, most notably, committed to controlling emissions.

There’s lots that could be said, and perhaps I will if people are interested. But for now, I’ll comment on the three most commonly used criticisms of the treaty: developing country exceptions; effects on economic growth; and effectiveness in reducing emissions.
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The government, taxes and charity

(Re-posting of a piece I originally posted on http://www.thought.co.za)

Recent forum topics have spoken about what giving to others should involve, and mentioned the government, etc. What I’ve thought for a while is that we sometimes miss the point when discussing these sorts of things, and often accepted ideas of charity are actually not all that useful for really helping people. So this post is about how I see the role of government, taxes and private giving fitting together. There aren’t many new ideas for what we should be doing, but maybe someone will find it interesting anyway. It’s also my opinion, so other opinions welcome!

Firstly, what is wealth/poverty? With the exception of retirement investments, simply having some money is a very poor measure of wealth. Rather, what matters is how much one earns. Very few people have more than a few months worth of income saved, and indeed most people are in debt for houses, cars, etc. In fact, the reason that they are able to have houses is not because they have money now, but because they are earning enough to have convinced a bank that they willl repay the loan. Many new businesses are also financed largely on loans, again because of the earning capabilities of those businesses. This is the economic background to the “give a man a fish vs teach him to fish” argument. Merely giving someone money will help in the short term (which can be crucial), but that person is still poor as they still earn little regular income. Someone can only really be said to have escaped poverty if he/she has a regular income, that can be documented and so used for loans, retirement saving, etc.
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