Designing for the Other 90% Summary
Recently, designers have only focusing on 10% of the population, the wealthy. Designs for cars are becoming sleeker and looking much better, but with that, prices are increasing. Most of the world barely has money for the necessities, they would never be able to afford a car. Designing for the poor is not a difficult task, all that it needs to be is something that they would have use for, and that it is affordable. In an experiment that was performed, they found that the poor would much rather buy something that is cheaper, rather than better quality. Even though they might make more than enough money in a month to buy the tool they need, they would only use the money that they had made that day so that there wouldn’t be any losses. They also found that even though the cheaper product shouldn’t have lasted longer, that they take very good care of their products, and will fix them so they can use them for as long as they can.
In America, it takes an unskilled worker about 10 minutes to make a dollar, where as in Bangladesh or Zimbabwe, it takes the same person two full days.
The Nawsa Mad System was a system in which farmers would be able to pay very little for a water recycling system so they were able to water their crops in the dry months, with captured rain water, and not worry about it evaporating. They ended up finding out that they best way to do this was with and underground cylinder that only cost the farmers about $40, and would pay for itself within the first year. On top of paying for itself, it was also help their incomes grow exponentially. This with an inexpensive drip irrigation system, about $3, would allow the farmers to make much more profit.
Another thing that a dollar-a-day citizens need, is a kit to make a 200 square foot home that they would be able to borrow money against, or sell. These homes would cost them no more that $100. The main thing that these struggling people need, is the access to affordability. They need to be able to buy the necessities without spending their entire paycheck. There are three things that designers need to focus on in order to design cheap: (1) miniaturization, (2) the pursuit of affordability, and (3) infinite expandability. Essentially, we need fewer designer to design for the few rich, and more designers to design for the abundant poor.
Agricultural Practices in India -- Summary
Those who support globalization say that it is a natural, inevitable process. Where as in reality, it is a very unnatural process that deprives people of their “life-support systems, livelihoods, and lifestyles.” Market competitions (WTO) have two functions: (1) everything about life becomes goods for sale, and (2) the collapse of nature, culture, and livelihood are because of the ‘rules of competition.’ Within the seed industry, the leading concentration is economic globalization. With this push for globalization in poorer areas of the world, it has made it very difficult for the small farmers to survive, let alone thrive. With globalization comes higher process which makes it very difficult for the citizens of developing countries to get one of the basic necessities, food. Recently, export-orientated agriculture has reduced food security, because farms are no longer small and sustainable, they are large and unsustainable. This shift in thinking also takes away work form the peasants, and the land that they normally grew on is taken over by an industrial sized company so they can grow enough for and industrial sized export. One problem, with globalization, is even though a country’s agricultural business may be developed by definition, they are not ‘technically’ considered developed unless they are run by one of the larger companies. Also, these large companies claim that they can make more jobs available by taking over the smaller farms, but in reality, they end up using technology to replace the man power.
Recently, designers have only focusing on 10% of the population, the wealthy. Designs for cars are becoming sleeker and looking much better, but with that, prices are increasing. Most of the world barely has money for the necessities, they would never be able to afford a car. Designing for the poor is not a difficult task, all that it needs to be is something that they would have use for, and that it is affordable. In an experiment that was performed, they found that the poor would much rather buy something that is cheaper, rather than better quality. Even though they might make more than enough money in a month to buy the tool they need, they would only use the money that they had made that day so that there wouldn’t be any losses. They also found that even though the cheaper product shouldn’t have lasted longer, that they take very good care of their products, and will fix them so they can use them for as long as they can.
In America, it takes an unskilled worker about 10 minutes to make a dollar, where as in Bangladesh or Zimbabwe, it takes the same person two full days.
The Nawsa Mad System was a system in which farmers would be able to pay very little for a water recycling system so they were able to water their crops in the dry months, with captured rain water, and not worry about it evaporating. They ended up finding out that they best way to do this was with and underground cylinder that only cost the farmers about $40, and would pay for itself within the first year. On top of paying for itself, it was also help their incomes grow exponentially. This with an inexpensive drip irrigation system, about $3, would allow the farmers to make much more profit.
Another thing that a dollar-a-day citizens need, is a kit to make a 200 square foot home that they would be able to borrow money against, or sell. These homes would cost them no more that $100. The main thing that these struggling people need, is the access to affordability. They need to be able to buy the necessities without spending their entire paycheck. There are three things that designers need to focus on in order to design cheap: (1) miniaturization, (2) the pursuit of affordability, and (3) infinite expandability. Essentially, we need fewer designer to design for the few rich, and more designers to design for the abundant poor.
Agricultural Practices in India -- Summary
Those who support globalization say that it is a natural, inevitable process. Where as in reality, it is a very unnatural process that deprives people of their “life-support systems, livelihoods, and lifestyles.” Market competitions (WTO) have two functions: (1) everything about life becomes goods for sale, and (2) the collapse of nature, culture, and livelihood are because of the ‘rules of competition.’ Within the seed industry, the leading concentration is economic globalization. With this push for globalization in poorer areas of the world, it has made it very difficult for the small farmers to survive, let alone thrive. With globalization comes higher process which makes it very difficult for the citizens of developing countries to get one of the basic necessities, food. Recently, export-orientated agriculture has reduced food security, because farms are no longer small and sustainable, they are large and unsustainable. This shift in thinking also takes away work form the peasants, and the land that they normally grew on is taken over by an industrial sized company so they can grow enough for and industrial sized export. One problem, with globalization, is even though a country’s agricultural business may be developed by definition, they are not ‘technically’ considered developed unless they are run by one of the larger companies. Also, these large companies claim that they can make more jobs available by taking over the smaller farms, but in reality, they end up using technology to replace the man power.
