Delphi: Nothing in Excess

I have to give an apperciation for having this “dreams”. This could gives us hope in the middle of  nowhere. I discuss with my collegue about this. I just give some opinions:

1. About the economic size of China as the number one.The history told us that the time for “levelling off” the biggest power should be higher than just 30 years.

• Europe needed 700 years to escape from dark ages
• UK needed hundreds years to dominate the world (after the fierce battle of Waterloo )
• US need around 400 years for chasing UK (after the Second World War)
• PRC will be in the first position in the next 30 years? As the information, currently US produce and consume about 21%-25% of world GDP, Japan 7%-14%, and EU around 22%.

  2. USD 18.000 percapita will not guarantee the distribution of income.

Three hundred years ago, Malthus remain us on the “Essay of Population”: there will be a positive check that will keep the balance between the number of human being and the nature”. The positive check is the way of the ”nature” to control human population through natural disaster, endemic desease, and “wars among the human being”. The only way of the human being in facing the toll death of the positive check is having technology innovation. In Indonesia today, probably Maltus is right and the positive check is taking stock. 

There are many opinions about the relation between democracy and economy, including the speech of Prof Boediono in UGM [USD 6000 in PPP as the lower limit of the safety zone of democracy]. The economics 101 could bring us an enlightens about these opinions: If we want to consume two goods, let say Other Goods or Physical Goods (G with its price Pg) and Democracy (D with its price Pd) and we have only limited budget M (income), we have to choose the combination that will give us maximum satisfaction. However, the limited budget will give us constraints that will make us in the dilemma situation: if you want to increase the consumption of D, you have to reduce the consumption of G. The only way to consume more on both goods is “achieving higher budget limit (income)” that probably need longer time and higher effort. Do you agree? Sometimes I don’t! Education level of society should be the most important thing to be considered. Unfortunately, the education itself needs budget (income) to be realized.

To tell you the truth that the economics could easily tell us, which sometimes makes me a little bit angry, to be poor means having fewer choices: to consume more democracy we should reducing “other goods” consumption.