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[misko27]

PoH, that's a very good point you bring to the table. I think however that instead of trying to look wealthy the stigma of being poor should be removed. (Because THAT'S going to be easy, right?!?! WELL I TRY)

They tried before it just doesn't work. For example Brown Buisness suits.

The Stigma of being poor often accumalates in the things you haven't done. Example, 55% of references here completely elude me. I catch on after a while, but damn, Games people play, movies people watch, a concert, a event, bla-bla-blah. And you feel you're misssing out on everything. I almost never follow conversations, and it really negatively impacts my abilty to have a conversation, which doesn't help with my shyness. In fact, it is probably one of the biggest reasons. Plus, it doesn't help that you're tastes adapt to being poor, so crappy chicken seems like a awesome thing, while better meals are actively avoided.
 
Beyond that, I've never really felt bad about being poor.Tis a state of being is all it is. As long as you can afford food, and a home, life should be fine.The thing about luxuries is the thing that is the curse and joy of life. Whatever it is, good or bad, you get used to it eventually.

[ed boy]

1/4 of the word uses 3/4 of the world's resources.

Well, how on earth do you quantify that?

Easiest is GDP, wikipedia says 65% of GDP belongs to MDCs

But GDP is very much tainted by purchasing power in that country. The 65% in that article is nominal, the real is only 52% (and according to the source that wikipedia cites for that (here[/URL), it's projected to be about 50% by now). That data is from who the IMF consideres to be an advanced country, but I don't know what the sum population of those countries is.

[Loud Whispers]

Grown versions are free from impurities which make other gems unique, and in some cases - more valuable

I should state that the "Hope diamond" is aided by the fact that it is a large diamond.

And full of boron and other such nice things.

You can shape a diamond in almost anyway you want. If you wanted a diamond in the shape of a heart you could do it with grown diamonds.

And a gem cutter with natural!

You can also match those exact "impurities" as well.

Exactly? No. But close enough; they nicked the boron-diamond one to hopefully start making diamond super conductors. This isn't for lack of manufacturing process, just that making a diamond that's exactly like one you picked off some mine somewhere is both impractical and not useful. Cultivated diamonds are the ones that'll end up in tools, perfection is what you'd want for those.

Lastly no one can tell the difference between a flawless diamond and a manufactured diamond unless they are trained to.

*Trained to see the serial code
And why yes, you could tell the difference between a natural and a manufactured diamond. Well, you couldn't, nor could a jeweler, but a reputable lab could.

Usually the idea is that the most expensive gemstones are better because they are the most expensive and you have to have the most expensive gemstones.

"I payed more, surely it's better?"
Well diamonds sure are shiny and they are durable. Long lasting. Bad analogy, a better example would be GERD DARM PHONES.
Cost loads, waste resources, are abandoned the moment the new shows up.

[Neonivek]

Diamonds long lasting? Bah!

I put some diamonds in a snakes eyes and they broke befor I finished a Hula dance.

[Mr Space Cat]

In a culture where people get respect and admiration for having expensive stuff, is it really that surprising that people want stuff that'll get them respect and admiration? When looking poor gets you disgusted stares in public, is it that irrational to want to look wealthy?

The masses of advertising isn't helping either.

I can't even watch TV anymore. Seems to be commercial breaks every five minutes and 80% of these commercials just seem to insult my intelligence while screaming at me to buy buy buy. Marketing seems to be devolving into the "Consumers are Goldfish" state of mind, and apparently the consumers aren't proving them wrong.

Personally, I focus less on spending loads of money on unnecessary stuff and more on accomplishing hobbies and feeling as if I've achieved something with my life. It's nice to create something just for the sake of creating.

[Cthulhu]

I'm also thinking the fact that highly developed countries have most of the world's GDP is almost tautological and doesn't really give us any interesting information.  That's like saying the world's fastest runners win a disproportionate amount of races.

[Loud Whispers]

I'm also thinking the fact that highly developed countries have most of the world's GDP is almost tautological and doesn't really give us any interesting information.  That's like saying the world's fastest runners win a disproportionate amount of races.

If said runners gained their speed by gathering overwhelming speed interest from other runners.

[Mr. Palau]

In my humble opinion, people just don't give a fuck if it hurts someone else, so long as they do not know or care about that person, and that there is a sufficient degree of separation. For example, I eat meat. Eating meat is horribly wasteful, because a cow converts less than 20% of the energy feed to it, in terms of corn, into delicious meat. And in addition, it takes around 4900 pounds of oil to make that cow (based on rough calculations of the volume of oil per barrel and and density of oil, and the barrels of oil that go into a cow according to a times article I was forced to read over the summer, which was something like 576 barrels).

All of that means that by eating meat, and trust me my family eats enough meat to amount to at least one cow a year, I am wasting so much food and oil that I could save the lives of many people by switching to a vegetarian diet(for my entire family, maybe 10, just by the food alone, not even counting the effect the oil could have) .

But good damn it I love my meat and those people can go to hell. Now, it is my choices that are causing those people to die, and I know it, but I still do not care. And I think no one would care, because you do not have to strangle them with your own two hands.

If everyone who read this became vegetarian, we could save an entire damn village, but that just ain't goin to happen now is it?

In fact my damn eating habits probably kill far more people than the two 3 iPhones my family bought this year, and probably wasted far more reasources, since most of the iPhone can be recycled, so that only a small amount of material and energy is lost, but that oil and those people and that cow are gone forever.

[Neonivek]

It depends what vegetables you eat Mr. Palau.

For example if you eat sugar or Bananas.

[Heron TSG]

I'm also thinking the fact that highly developed countries have most of the world's GDP is almost tautological and doesn't really give us any interesting information.  That's like saying the world's fastest runners win a disproportionate amount of races.

If said runners gained their speed by gathering overwhelming speed interest from other runners.

Actually, a lot of the reason that Cross Country is a team sport is that the faster runners are racing against the slower runners in practice. Someone could have a load of talent, but if they're running on their own all the time they'll never reach their full potential.

[Scoops Novel]

Any way of addressing this beyond the odd tuppence to charity?

[Levi]

Any way of addressing this beyond the odd tuppence to charity?

Not that I can think of yet, without a major change in how society works.

The only future thing that I can think of is if in the future robots do most of the work and everybody gets non-luxuries for free and a small luxury allowance.

[Helgoland]

We could try to make product prices reflect their true cost - re-internalizing the externalities.

Meat would become expensive, you'd no longer be able to drive a car, in winter you wear warm clothes indoors, farmers go out of business because of the reduction in subsidies, etc.

All those are good things, mind you; but they're the reason that such a system (a combination of taxation and cap-and-trade) is unlikely to be implemented.

[Scoops Novel]

How about increasing awareness of the wealth gap?

[Muz]

Screw luxury.

I don't mean things like iPhones, diamond rings, spacious houses, hi-fis, space tourism, and midrange cars. That stuff does make you happier and contributes a little to research.

I mean things like multiple exotic cars, villas with internal bowling alleys, gold toilet seats, platinum swords. They don't make you happy, they're just to make someone else jealous. You can probably be happier just giving that money to someone who needs it. But it becomes some kind of stupid score thing where people make more money just to get on the "top richest 100 people" list or something.