There was the idea for solar-powered slotcar freeways, and the idea for something else, I forget what. Here is another idea for the world that I have been carrying around since I was a kid. I can’t figure out how to get rich from it, though, so I’m putting it up for grabs here:
Reciprocal development aid. By this, I mean not only would rich countries send aid workers to poor countries to drill wells, or vaccinate, or work on industrial development programs. Poor countries would also send teachers to rich countries to train people how to undevelop, and live with less.
This is the cleverest thing I’ve read in a very long time. Oh yes, oh yes. Let’s do it. The idea may not be terribly profitable moneywise, but I think by turning this world insideout in this way, there would be a wondrous bit of empathy, understanding, and gratefulness in today’s generation of spoiled brats.
not to mention yesterday’s generation of spoiled brats.
should travel costs prove a problem, one could also recruit as trainers the following: local poor people, local old people who lived through the last depression, ethnic-looking actors.
It’s a good idea, to learn to live with less I mean, but it works best when people don’t have a choice. How many of the “teachers” do you think would want to continue to live with less once they got here? Some would, of course, like the father of one of my nurse colleagues in Buffalo, who lives by choice in a cabin in the woods without electricity. But I bet many, if not most, would “defect.” Within a year they’d have Blackberries anf flat screen TV’s… or are those things now considered part of the simple life?