just thinking about population density for a minute: the population density of Bangladesh for example is tremendous, perhaps the "vent for surplus" theory has a larger parallel to equality and growth of industrial capitalism
also i heard a comment the other day ... i think it was a rural indigenous person in bolivia which was something like "we are rural people -- we do not need much -- we make what we need." i was thinking of something a day or two previously about the unending role of the city in driving consumption -- the cultural engines of the city in turn thrive of of it and drive it to further heights (and consider what that does to our urban centered world and our own understandings thereof!) -- investing in education and other things that boost marginal productivity through borrowing -- the rural way to mantain your own demands so that they do not surpass your own output. when production outpaces demand this surplus is expected to be used for investment and to make up for lean times.
2 comments:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/123
i dunno, i'm not sure i completely agree with the speaker in jeanette's comment.
though empirical evidence bears out the point of the speakers argument -- that cities are vital for slowing down the growth of the human population and for growing wealth -- i have four bones to pick:
1. i mistrust the evidence due to what seems like multicollinearity between the confounding variable of education/rule of law. an argument could be made that these are easier applied in an urban setting.
2. the growth of cities is highly unsustainable and is pushing us closer to environmental catastrophy
3. displacement from rural areas is responsible for volatile living conditions for the world's poorest. many of these folks are coming to the cities for the wrong reasons: the urban-vested federal governments are creating urban jobs for their consistuents, drawing in rural job-seekers. the "global culture" is urban-centric (rural focused federal governments -- see south east asia and moaist china -- reversed these trends, though brutally in some cases). recent doubling of the price of rice bears out the danger of unreleting rural to urban migration.
Post a Comment