Showing posts with label inequality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label inequality. Show all posts

Monday, January 13, 2025

$8 Billion Is Insufficient to End World Hunger





Here’s an $8 billion plan to address world hunger, combining immediate relief efforts with long-term strategies to create sustainable food systems:


1. Immediate Relief: Emergency Food Assistance ($2 Billion)

  • Target Areas: Conflict zones, disaster-stricken areas, and regions experiencing acute food insecurity (e.g., Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia).
  • Implementation:
    • Partner with organizations like the World Food Programme (WFP) and UNICEF for large-scale food distribution.
    • Focus on delivering fortified food, high-nutrition meals, and therapeutic feeding solutions for children.
    • Leverage existing logistical networks (air, sea, and land) to quickly transport food to affected regions.
  • Technology Integration: Use blockchain for transparent tracking of food distribution.

2. Sustainable Agriculture Development ($3 Billion)

  • Goal: Empower smallholder farmers, improve productivity, and reduce post-harvest losses.
  • Key Initiatives:
    • Climate-Resilient Crops: Develop and distribute seeds resistant to drought, pests, and extreme weather.
    • Irrigation Systems: Invest in low-cost, solar-powered irrigation systems for water-scarce areas.
    • Training Programs: Educate farmers on modern agricultural practices, agroforestry, and sustainable land management.
    • Post-Harvest Infrastructure: Build storage facilities, cold chains, and transport networks to reduce food waste.
  • Regional Focus: Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and parts of Latin America with significant smallholder farming populations.

3. Nutrition Education & Microfinance ($1 Billion)

  • Nutrition Education:
    • Train local health workers to teach families about balanced diets and food preparation.
    • Partner with schools to include nutrition in curriculums and provide school meals as incentives for education.
  • Microfinance for Farmers:
    • Provide small loans to farmers for seeds, tools, and equipment to boost yields.
    • Support women-led agricultural initiatives to ensure equitable access to resources.

4. Urban Agriculture & Food Systems Innovation ($500 Million)

  • Urban Farming:
    • Create community gardens and rooftop farming initiatives in urban areas to improve food security.
    • Utilize vertical farming technologies for high-yield crop production in cities.
  • Food Recovery Programs:
    • Partner with supermarkets and restaurants to redirect surplus food to food banks and shelters.
    • Incentivize businesses to reduce food waste through tax benefits.

5. Policy Advocacy & Research ($1 Billion)

  • Advocacy:
    • Push governments to adopt pro-agriculture policies, including subsidies for small farmers and investments in rural infrastructure.
    • Advocate for gender equality in agriculture to empower women, who make up a large proportion of farmers in developing countries.
  • Research:
    • Fund research into agricultural technology, food fortification, and climate change adaptation.
    • Establish data systems to track hunger hotspots and allocate resources more effectively.

6. Digital Tools for Hunger Mapping & Farmer Support ($500 Million)

  • Hunger Mapping:
    • Use satellite data and AI to identify regions at risk of food insecurity.
    • Develop apps that allow local governments and NGOs to coordinate responses.
  • Farmer Support Platforms:
    • Build mobile apps that provide weather forecasts, market prices, and farming tips to rural farmers.
    • Leverage mobile payment systems to facilitate easy access to microloans.

Execution Strategy:

  1. Partner with international organizations (e.g., UN, FAO, WFP) for expertise and networks.
  2. Work with governments in target countries to ensure policy alignment and local support.
  3. Collaborate with the private sector (agribusiness, tech companies) to leverage innovation and scale efforts.
  4. Establish transparent governance to track fund utilization and impact using technology like blockchain.

Impact Metrics:

  • Short-Term:
    • Provide emergency food assistance to 50 million people annually.
    • Reduce malnutrition rates in target areas by 20%.
  • Long-Term:
    • Increase agricultural yields in target regions by 30%.
    • Lift 100 million people out of chronic hunger within a decade.
    • Reduce food waste globally by 25%.

This plan tackles hunger through immediate aid, sustainable agriculture, technological innovation, and systemic reform, ensuring both short-term relief and long-term resilience.



Why $8 Billion Is Insufficient to End World Hunger

While $8 billion can make a significant dent in alleviating hunger, it falls short of addressing the structural and systemic causes of food insecurity, which include poverty, climate change, conflict, and weak agricultural infrastructure. An effective solution requires addressing these interconnected issues simultaneously and at scale. Here's why a $20 billion plan is more realistic to sustainably end world hunger in five years:

  1. Scale of the Problem:

    • Global Hunger Statistics: Over 735 million people are undernourished, requiring resources far beyond $8 billion for food, agricultural development, and nutrition education.
    • Conflict Zones: Hunger is exacerbated by wars and crises, which need high-cost interventions like airlifting food and rebuilding destroyed infrastructure.
  2. Structural Barriers:

    • Climate change, poor infrastructure, and lack of access to technology cannot be solved with short-term funding.
    • Achieving global food security demands massive investments in long-term solutions.

$20 Billion Plan to End World Hunger in Five Years

Here’s how $20 billion can be allocated effectively:


1. Immediate Relief & Resilience ($5 Billion)

Goal: Address acute hunger and build systems to prevent future crises.

  • Emergency Food Assistance ($2.5 Billion):
    • Double the scale of operations by organizations like WFP and UNICEF to reach 100 million people annually.
    • Focus on high-risk regions like Sub-Saharan Africa, Yemen, and Afghanistan.
  • Resilience Programs ($2.5 Billion):
    • Stockpile emergency food reserves in strategic locations for rapid deployment.
    • Build disaster-resistant community food storage facilities.

2. Transforming Agriculture Systems ($8 Billion)

Goal: Ensure sustainable, climate-resilient agricultural production globally.

  • Climate-Resilient Agriculture ($3 Billion):
    • Scale up R&D for drought-resistant crops and eco-friendly farming methods.
    • Distribute seeds, fertilizers, and technology to 50 million smallholder farmers.
  • Irrigation & Water Management ($2 Billion):
    • Install low-cost irrigation systems in water-scarce regions.
    • Build reservoirs and invest in water desalination for agriculture.
  • Post-Harvest Infrastructure ($2 Billion):
    • Create storage and transport systems to reduce the 30% of food lost post-harvest.
    • Establish agro-processing hubs to add value to raw produce.
  • Market Access ($1 Billion):
    • Build rural roads and transport networks to connect farmers to markets.
    • Invest in digital platforms to enable farmers to sell directly to buyers.

3. Fighting Malnutrition & Education ($2 Billion)

Goal: End malnutrition through targeted nutrition programs.

  • Nutrition Programs ($1.5 Billion):
    • Expand therapeutic feeding for malnourished children.
    • Fortify staple foods with essential vitamins and minerals.
  • Education ($500 Million):
    • Integrate nutrition education into school curriculums.
    • Provide free school meals to 100 million children annually to incentivize education and improve health.

4. Conflict Resolution & Governance Support ($3 Billion)

Goal: Address political and systemic barriers to food security.

  • Conflict Mediation ($1 Billion):
    • Invest in peace-building initiatives in regions like Yemen, Sudan, and Ethiopia.
    • Protect humanitarian corridors to ensure food reaches conflict-affected areas.
  • Policy Reforms ($2 Billion):
    • Support governments to adopt pro-agriculture policies, including subsidies for small farmers and equitable land distribution.
    • Strengthen local food systems by creating safety nets for the poor.

5. Technology & Innovation ($2 Billion)

Goal: Leverage technology to modernize food systems and empower farmers.

  • Digital Platforms ($1 Billion):
    • Build apps for weather forecasting, crop advice, and market prices tailored for rural farmers.
    • Use mobile money platforms to provide microloans to farmers.
  • AI & Big Data ($500 Million):
    • Develop AI-powered systems to map hunger hotspots and predict food shortages.
  • Smart Farming ($500 Million):
    • Promote precision agriculture, drones, and IoT sensors for large-scale farms.

6. Urban Agriculture & Food Recovery ($2 Billion)

Goal: Tackle hunger in urban areas while reducing food waste.

  • Urban Farming ($1.5 Billion):
    • Scale vertical farming, rooftop gardening, and community gardens in cities.
    • Focus on densely populated regions like South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
  • Food Recovery Programs ($500 Million):
    • Partner with corporations to rescue surplus food from supply chains.
    • Create tax incentives for businesses to donate food to shelters and food banks.

7. Global Partnerships & Monitoring ($1 Billion)

Goal: Ensure accountability and foster collaboration.

  • Global Coalition: Establish a coalition of governments, NGOs, and private sector stakeholders.
  • Monitoring & Transparency: Use blockchain and AI for real-time tracking of funds, resources, and outcomes.

Impact Goals:

  • Eliminate chronic hunger for 735 million people in five years.
  • Reduce global food waste by 50%.
  • Achieve sustainable food systems in 50+ countries.
  • Build climate-resilient agriculture for 500 million people.

Why $20 Billion Is Realistic

  • It represents just 0.02% of the global GDP (~$100 trillion).
  • Public-private partnerships and global collaboration can easily mobilize the funds.
  • The scale of interventions ensures the money addresses both immediate needs and structural reforms.

This $20 billion plan balances urgency with sustainability, ensuring the world not only ends hunger but prevents its recurrence.



Friday, November 19, 2021

Ending White Minority Rule Across America

The Donald Trump-inspired political phenomenon across America that seems to refuse to die down is not an attempt to take America to an era of white minority rule. America has always had white minority rule. It is an attempt to retain white minority rule when the demographics of the country, the economic growth happening across the world, and all-around political consciousness ask America to take yet another stride towards becoming a more perfect union. Democracy is one person one vote, no ifs, no buts about it. All human beings are created equal, white or not, American citizen or not.

But sometimes hubris takes over, like in the case of Brexit. A people refusing to let go of old attitudes, habits of mind that supported unequal structures of power will not hesitate to rob the next generation of its future. A significant proportion of the population across America right now is trying too hard to go the way of a Brexit. A country of immigrants wants to stench the flow of immigration. You might as well cut the oxygen supply.

To be fair, America has always been a messy democracy. All democracies are messy. When you let everyone speak, when you let everyone vote, you will likely end up with a cacophony. The political spectrum houses every zany idea that ever existed somewhere along its length. As someone said, the past is not even past.

Every great crisis is an opportunity. But then every great crisis is also a potential disaster. The political will has to be mustered not to keep America as the sole global superpower - that was never an ideal situation to begin with - but so as to optimize the lifestyle and living standards and spiritual well-being of current and future generations, in America as well as the world. America is still the leading nation, and its signals are still picked up around the world. Ask Bolsonaro.

China is obvious competition and a potential threat. China might have picked up the market to an extent in response to the implosion of the Soviet Union, but it still retains one party’s political monopoly. The godlessness that is at the core of the Chinese political system is the reason for its immense cruelties: organ harvesting of the Falun Gong practitioners, social engineering to turn Uighurs into Han Chinese, killing the hen that laid the golden egg, namely Hong Kong, saber-rattling in the skies of Taiwan, border disputes with pretty much every bordering nation large and small, and round-the-clock surveillance of the entire population. Always being watched robs you of your basic humanity.

But white supremacist tendencies in America are hardly godly. The black population might as well be American Uighurs. Too many Uighurs are in detention camps, too many blacks are in prison. China erased poverty, America is not even working on it. Crass wealth inequality, left on its current trajectory, will bring America down. America will go the way of the Soviet Union. It will implode.

America today is not a democracy, never has been. It is not a one-person, one-vote arrangement. America is not a free-market economy. There are too many entrenched pockets of uncompetitive terrains segment after segment, architected by bribing politicians. Money has deformed the political process. The vast majority are voiceless as evidenced by policy after sensible policy that falls on deaf ears in the corridors of power.

Perhaps what America needs is a constitutional convention, ala Philadelphia. Elected representatives from across the country should gather again for the sole purpose of writing a new constitution that would expire automatically in 50 years. That might be the only way to make sure winners of the popular vote do not routinely lose the presidential election, the Senate is not a House of Lords, under the grip of less than 20% of the population, the people elect politicians and it is not the other way round. America needs to make an attempt at one person one vote democracy. America needs to try and become a democracy.

A constitution is just the playground, the football field if you will. The game is political action. Voters asserting their rights, and that of others, realizing their responsibilities, leaders challenging as well as responding to an awakening population, robustly borrowing from imaginative academics and thinkers, idea people, and all collectively seizing the future for an unprecedented Age of Abundance that is already knocking on the door: that is the clarion call of the day. There are major reasons for optimism if only the moment will be seized.

Perhaps the president should be directly elected. Open primaries might be the antidote to shameless gerrymandering. No taxation without representation was right for Boston. It is right for DC and Puerto Rico. Maybe every state should get a minimum of one Senator, but above that it should be proportional to the population for a total of 200 Senators. A state like California might as well end up with 20 Senatorial districts, or 10 even if the Senate’s number is capped at the current 100. Non-citizen white immigrants voted. All immigrants should similarly get the right to vote, regardless of what papers they carry. If you pay a phone bill, you vote. If you pay the utility bill, you vote.

You can not have one person one vote democracy at the local level but have something else at the state level, or something else at the national level. Why stop at the national borders? It is high time for a world government that adheres to the basic principle of democracy, that of one person one vote. The global economy asks for a genuine world government. The five veto-wielding powers at the UN are a relic of World War II. Nobody alive today remembers World War II. The UN is the ultimate white minority rule. Four of the five veto faces are white. And all five are male.

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

"Extreme Inequality Is Like Economic Pollution"

What could the US afford if it raised billionaires' taxes? We do the math “Every billionaire is a policy failure.” So says a key adviser to Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Ocasio-Cortez herself says that it’s wrong to have a “system that allows billionaires to exist” alongside poverty. And the New York Times columnist Farhad Manjoo recently called for us to “abolish billionaires”. ...... Today, the top 1% of Americans own more wealth than the bottom 90% combined. ....... But what does it really mean? Is it setting a cap on the amount of wealth one household can own? Or does it entail something a little more structural: unrigging the system that gave us billionaires and instead creating an economy in which everyday people get the benefits from the growth that they have created. ........ The richest 1% own nearly 40% of all the wealth, but pay only 20% of all the taxes. ............

Inequality makes bubbles more likely, it undermines the foundations for innovation and productivity, and it weakens and destabilizes consumer demand.

........ taxing the super-rich would generate revenue that could be put to better uses than letting that money sit in a Bahamian bank account of a billionaire. .......

Over the next 10 years, the richest 1% of American households will take home about another $22tn, after federal taxes. Their average annual post-tax income will be about $1.7m.

........ Three trillion dollars in new revenue is enough to make college free at all public universities, make a massive new investment in infrastructure along the lines of what Senate Democrats have proposed, and triple the budget for the National Institutes of Health. Needless to say, all of these investments would pay enormous economic dividends. .......... Doing that would generate about $8tn in revenue, which is enough to send every household in the bottom 75% a check for nearly $8,500 every year for 10 years........ As of 2016, the wealthiest 1% of American households owned about $27tn in total, an average of about $23m per household. ........ A tax that took about 1% of that wealth each year would yield about $4tn over the next decade. To put that amount in perspective, $4tn is more than the federal government will spend over the next decade on foster care, school lunch, school breakfast, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, food stamps, unemployment compensation, supplemental security income for the elderly, blind people and those with disabilities, and all the tax credits for working families combined........ Rich people are neither the source of economic prosperity, nor will they decide to go off and form their own society in Antarctica or 10 miles off the coast of San Diego...... If we disincentivize hoarding at the top, money will more easily flow to the workers and families who really drive economic growth. ........ And before long, instead of a few hundred billionaires taking ever more, we could instead have a thriving middle class, widespread economic security, and real opportunities to give the next generation a better life.


Saturday, September 21, 2019

The Blockchain Will Make A Global Wealth Tax Possible



Nobody is saying American Basic Income (ABI). The term is UBI, or Universal Basic Income. It necessarily has to cover every human being on the planet (and any other planet, should Elon Musk get his way).

Universal Basic Income (aka Freedom Dividend) Is Not Free Money

Forget robotics, forget automation, forget artificial intelligence, forget technology. The wealth inequality on its own is as big a problem as the climate crisis. The threat is existential. Unless the wealth gap in this country and around the world is significantly reduced, ahead lies mayhem. Human civilization will not work if the gap keeps widening. Right now it is widening.

The globe is warming. The wealth gap is widening. And the two are two sides of the same coin, like electricity and magnetism.

Inequality And Climate Change Are Existential: A Blueprint For Survival



How do you put in place a wealth tax? You need to know who everyone is. You need to know what everyone owns. You need to know what the sum total of wealth on earth is. The data on each of that is scant right now. It is certainly not in any one database.

That is where technology comes in. Look at how easy it has become to send anyone text and photos these days. We think of it as free. In 1990 it was not free. It was not possible. If you wanted to share pictures, you needed to use postal mail. It cost money. It was slow. It was not done much.

The Blockchain is the Internet on steroids. The Blockchain is going to be 100 or 1,000 times more impactful than the Internet. The Blockchain will do to money what the Internet has done to media. Everyone on earth will get a biometric ID. What every person owns in terms of wealth will get recorded on that Blockchain. And then the wealth tax is easy. According to one proposal, that of Senator Elizabeth Warren, you simply pay 2% every year on all wealth you own above 50 million dollars.

That sounds like trickle-down economics to me. Unless your wealth above 50 million is generating at least 3% income, or likely 5% or more, why will you want to keep it? And so the idea of parking money will no longer be in vogue. Right now the ultra-wealthy have trillions of dollars in parked money, wealth that exists, but that is not invested in anything productive like clean energy, or a new generation of jobs.

The global wealth tax is coming. It is unstoppable. The Blockchain does not belong to any company or country.

The Blockchain: Fundamental Like The Internet



You are looking at a world government.

Towards A World Government



All the grand challenges in the world today are global in nature. Only a world government can tackle them.









Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Brexit, Aexit, And Trump

Brexit is easier to look at for Americans because the distance the pond offers gives you perspective. The trade war is Donald Trump attempting Brexit for America. Is it possible for the British economy to disengage from the larger European economy? It is the largest market in the world. Is it possible for the American economy to disengage from the Chinese economy? Just like Brexit seemed to have bipartisan support in London, looks like Trump's moves enjoy bipartisan support in Washington DC.

I think the short answer is the attempted disengagement is not possible. You can try and create a lot of political drama. But the disengagement will not happen. The supply chains of the world have become so enormously complex. Country A exports item M to Country B, which uses item M to produce item N which it exports to Country A, and that back and forth goes five times, six times, 10 times. How do you disengage?

50 years ago the Chinese read the Chinese newspapers, the Americans read the American newspapers. Today Donald Trump's facial expressions are transmitted in real time to all world as he makes small talk with Abe or Xi. And they get archived for anyone else to see on their own time. In this information-rich environment, you can bluff but you will get seen.

I don't believe Trump cares for the cause of democracy. His relentless verbal attacks on media in the US is a hint. He has openly asked for violence in the streets.

I believe he is a demagogue who misleads his people. He taps into the anger from the lost manufacturing base and channels blame on the Mexican and the Chinese. He does not have a solution. The trade war is just a bigger version of the border wall theatrics. He promised he will get those manufacturing jobs back and he wants to be seen trying. Look, I did try to build the wall. Look, I did put the pressure on the Chinese.

The smart thing to do would be to face the facts of the massive transition that is underway. Evidence-based decision making will lead to a realization this transition need not be painful and it can be good news.

The smart thing to do is to face the facts of climate change and inequality. Both are existential.



Monday, April 08, 2019

A Truly Global Universal Basic Income

The global GDP stands at around 90 trillion dollars. The total wealth in the world stands at 280 trillion. There are eight billion people in the world.


If you were to install a Universal Basic Income for every person on earth of $100 per month, the cost comes to 800 billion dollars per month or almost 10 trillion per year. That is not a small sum. A 3% wealth tax would pay for it. Considering much of that 10 trillion would be spent, that would lead to a rise in GDP, wealth and income. The rich might harvest it all back. So the 3% tax would be a great investment.

But this would require a world government, a biometric ID for everyone on earth, fast broadband everywhere on earth, and universal access to digital money.

The US should also follow Modi's lead and announce demonetization. That would bankrupt numerous illicit organizations.

This 3% wealth tax is of existential importance. Too much inequality is like climate change. It will lead to collapse.


Friday, April 05, 2019

The Inequality, The Climate Change

The inequality is as existential a threat as Climate Change. Taken far enough both will lead to a sudden collapse of the country, and civilization. There is ongoing denial on both fronts. Radical solutions are needed for both.

Why and How Capitalism Needs to Be Reformed (Part 1)
Over these many years I have also seen capitalism evolve in a way that it is not working well for the majority of Americans because it's producing self-reinforcing spirals up for the haves and down for the have-nots. This is creating widening income/wealth/opportunity gaps that pose existential threats to the United States because these gaps are bringing about damaging domestic and international conflicts and weakening America’s condition. ....... I think that most capitalists don’t know how to divide the economic pie well and most socialists don’t know how to grow it well, yet we are now at a juncture in which either a) people of different ideological inclinations will work together to skillfully re-engineer the system so that the pie is both divided and grown well or b) we will have great conflict and some form of revolution that will hurt most everyone and will shrink the pie.


The Next Recession Might Force The US To Do Universal Basic Income

Wednesday, March 13, 2019

AOC @ SXSW



The emergence of AOC is existential. Climate change is existential. Inequality is existential. Both lead civilizational ends. But AOC has a plan to combat both.