Enrich the Poor

Could floating nations enrich the poor? Humanitarian Michael Strong thinks they can. The Seasteading Institute fosters the work of aquapreneurs who seek to solve humanity's most dire emergencies by building floating nations on the sea.

Source: seasteading YouTube channel. Find out more at http://www.seasteading.org

(see video below transcript)

Transcript:

Over the second half of the 20th century, developmental economists have discovered the miracle of island prosperity. Often when an island breaks free from a larger country and forms a new nation, the poor experience breathtaking increases in prosperity within a generation.

Hong Kong is a little peninsula and a few islands. In 1960, its population was less than half of 1% of China's population. This flea on the dragon of China broke free and got to experiment with new rules.

For those refugees strong enough, there was always a place in one of the many primitive home industries, earning about a $1.50 US per month at the time.

Between 1961 and 1997, Hong Kong's GDP grew a 180 times. Today, Hong Kong has one of the highest GDP's per person in the world. It has one of the highest life expectancies in the world. It has the most skyscrapers in the world. And people who live in those skyscrapers remember when those same areas were squatter villages in the 1970s.

Singapore is an island nation between the giants of Malaysia and Indonesia. In 1964, the average Singaporean's yearly income was $511 US dollars. A year later Singapore gained independence from Malaysia, and the poor got to start over, with a new government. Today, Singapore leads the world in millionaires. Seventeen percent of all Singaporean households possess at least a $1million US dollars in disposable wealth, not counting capital. In Singapore, the 1% are the 17%.

Let's look at an African example. In 1975, 140 million Africans lived below the poverty line. By the year 2000, 360 million. Meanwhile Mauritius, a tiny island off the coast of Africa, gained independence from England. In 1975, roughly 40% of Mauritian households were living in poverty. By 2010, it was less than 2%. As of 2011, 87% of Mauritians own their own homes. In Mauritius, teenagers who stooped and cut sugar cane in the sun, are today wearing tailored suits and hosting meetings with bankers visiting from India.

It seems every time a new island nation hits restart with new rules, based on modern knowledge, the poor create their own wealth, at breathtaking rates, often putting their kids straight onto the professional class.

Michael Strong, an education entrepreneur, has been calling the world's attention to the phenomenon of hyper-growth as the best means to end poverty.

One of the arguments I've make in Senegal, and I'm talking to some people in Senegal about these options, is what if Senegal could become wealthier than France in 30 to 40 years? Senegal is a former French colony. Most Senegalese resent or almost hate the French. I point out that Hong Kong and Singapore used to be British colonies, and now they are both wealthier on a GDP per capita basis than Britain. I can tell this to any Senegalese, their eyes open up, they say yeah, how we do it? Where do I sign?

The ocean has always been the source of economic power. Mega-cities spring up near the coasts, because the ocean is the global superhighway of goods. It's easier to move something the size of a skyscraper across the ocean than it is to move your house to the next town. Floating cities will be all coasts. They'll have access to the superhighway on all sides. Now imagine if Mauritius was mobile. Will immigrants come to floating cities seeking blue jobs? In 2009, 700 million poor and oppressed people told a Gallup poll they want to leave their countries forever and find freedom and prosperity for their children. That's more than twice the population of the United States. Existing countries don't want to absorb them. Seasteads will require them. Imagine millions of blue jobs, causing a mass immigration comparable to the gold rush.

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Translated by: Jadranko Brkic