Re: phones and human welfare

[Daniel Davies <dsquared@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The point I think Ulhas is driving at is the really interesting thing in
those HDI statistics; Cuba has managed to achieve first world life
expectancy and literacy on a GDP of   just over $5k per head.  I think that
the next lowet on the list is close to $8k.  That's the really interesting
thing to me, and probably the one that would appeal to socialists of the
spartan back-to-nature tendency; it is apparently possible to live about as
many quality-adjusted life years as an average British person without having
the whole ghastly apparatus.

dd

-----Original Message-----
From: PEN-L list [mailto:PEN-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Devine,
James
Sent: 23 July 2004 00:45
To: PEN-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: phones and human welfare


[was: RE: [PEN-L] Cuba: siempre con combate]

Ulhas writes: > 75% Singaporeans, 50% Malaysians & 33% of Thais
have cell phones. How many cell phones Cuba has?<

it seems to me that cell phones are at best a mixed blessing. (I have one,
but I hate it: it rings when I'm driving, so I either have to pull over to
talk or drive in a risky way. This morning it interrupted a good song by
Townes Van Zandt.)  They are only really necessary if the land-line system
is broken for some reason. If you see phones as part of some sort of human
development index, it would be as "cell phones _plus_ access to land-lines"
or something like that.

In any event, there's no way one could reduce human welfare to either cell
phones or all phones.

jim devine