Reply #84: I guess the basic question for me is why you would want to stop and change something that has helped

[BrentWil]

millions of people. For example, China


From the UN.

http://www.undp.org.cn/modules.php?op=modload&name=News...

rapid economic development in the past two decades has generated the most rapid decline in absolute poverty ever witnessed.
Both national and international indicators show that China has already achieved the goal of halving the number of people in extreme poverty by 2015 set by the UN as one of eight Millennium Development Goals.

http://www.undp.org.cn/downloads/nhdr2008/NHDR2008_en.p...

population is wealthier, better educated and healthier than it has ever been. The population en- joys unprecedented mobility within the country, and access to travel, work and study in the out- side world. And opportunities to develop one’s human capacity to the fullest are vastly greater than ever before. The benefits of the economic growth in the past 30 years have reached the whole society, including the poorest groups in the population. By any measure—whether the official national poverty line or the global US $1 per day line—several hundred million Chinese have been lifted out of poverty in less than half a lifetime, truly an historic achievement.

http://www.china.org.cn/english/2003/Feb/56694.htm


World Bank

number of persons living in poverty in China was reduced from 250 million at the start of its reform process in 1978, to 80 million by the end of 1993 and to 29.27 million in 2001.

There might be reasons to change it a little, such as global warming. But to suggest changing the whole system because its "motives" aren't what you want, seems self defeating. Look at the RESULTS. And when I say results, I mean the bigger pictures results.