How Much Do We Value Future Generations? Climate Change, Debt, and Attitudes towards Policies for Improving Future Lives

Do people care much about future generations? Moral philosophers argue that we should, but it is not clear that laypeople agree. Humanity’s thus-far inadequate efforts to address climate change, for example, could be taken as a sign that people are unconcerned about the well-being of future generations. An alternative explanation is that the lack of action is due to public scepticism about climate policies’ effectiveness, rather than the discounting of future lives per se. Based on surveys and survey experiments with representative samples of respondents in four countries—Sweden, Spain, South Korea, and China—we find that most people say they care about future generations, and would even be willing to reduce their standard of living so that people can enjoy better lives in the future. Many do not, however, support policies for reducing either global warming or the national debt—both of which would impose a net cost on current generations for the benefit of future generations. We show that a significant part of the public’s apparent lack of concern for future generations is actually due to disbelief or distrust in the likely benefits of government actions.

Polarization of Living Standards among Administrative Units Engaged in Cross-Border Cooperation—The Example of Polish Municipalities of Euroregion Baltic

The present work examines the standard of living among the Polish municipalities of the Euroregion Baltic—an institution engaged in cross-border cooperation which is striving to improve the standard of living in border areas. The time span of the study extended to the first full year after Poland’s EU accession (2004), and to the 15th anniversary of the accession and the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Euroregion Baltic (2019 in both cases). All 38 Polish municipalities (NUTS 5) of the Euroregion were covered by the study. Using a synthetic index of standard of living based on Hellwig’s development pattern method, the municipalities were grouped into four classes according to their index value. Hierarchical methods were used to identify which municipalities had the most similar standards of living. The highest standard of living was recorded for the small, tourism-oriented town of Jastarnia and for strong urban centers (Gdańsk, Gdynia, Olsztyn, and Elbląg). Rural municipalities, especially those situated near the Polish-Russian border (Kaliningrad Oblast), had lower standards of living. The results show a progressing polarization in the standard of living, manifested by a widening gap between first-class municipalities and the other classes. This stratification was attributed to multiple factors, including the endogenous potential of the communities.

Implications of Female Farmer Knowledge and Participation in Bangladesh: Entrepreneurial Propensity and Income Enhancement

The study hypothesizes that female farmer participation in the local knowledge training provides corn farmers an advantage over non-participants. We planned on determining the amount of influence market participation had on female corn farmers along with entrepreneurial propensity among them and whether there was any change in income or standard of living among them. 600 female corn farmers were sampled in Bangladesh through a multi-stage sampling technique. Mean, standard deviation, and independent-sample t-test were used for data analysis. The findings showed that female participation in training classes gave them an advantage, entrepreneurial propensity (p<0.01), and improved standard of living/income enhancement (p<0.01). There is a continual need to strengthen female farmer participation through improved training for better outcome and economic growth.

Impact of Farmer FIRST Project on Livelihood of Farmers

Under the farmer FIRST project about 400 beneficiary farmers were provided access toimproved agricultural technologies in Khordha district. Skill training and demonstration ofmodules on improved technologies on Crop, Horticulture, Livestock and Fishery wereconducted. Following the DFID framework (1999) the impact on livelihoods of farmerswas measured through finding a comparative position of physical, social, financial, humanand natural assets of the farmers before and after the adoption of the interventions. Astructured interview schedule was developed and data was collected from 87 randomlyselected beneficiaries by personal interview method twice (before i.e., in 2016-17 and afterthe intervention i.e., in 2019-20). The mean value of overall standard of living of adoptedfarmers derived through the addition of the index values of five assets was worked out tobe 2.84 in the post-adoption period against 2.41 in the pre-adoption period. Paired samplet-test indicates the positive and significant impact of the project on the livelihood of thebeneficiaries.

Article 27: The Right to a Standard of Living Adequate for Physical, Mental, Spiritual, Moral, and Social Development

Abstract‘Government should help provide housing and clothing facilities to the children that will help us realise our potentials.’ (Africa)

Smart Homes and Offices

Smart Homes and Offices (SHO) are composed of interlinked components with constant data transfer and services targeted at increasing the lifestyle of the people. This chapter describes about the smart components and how SHO are direct implementation of Internet of Things (IOT). The major paradigm in this chapter is appliances supporting smart aspects of SHO, their applications and change in technology in context of smart Homes and Offices. Here we have also discussed the standardization and personalization of gadgets and how it has been increasing our standard of living. Finally, the chapter focuses on privacy preserving mechanisms, its essence over smart cities, strong architecture related to privacy, preserving mechanism, and various approaches available that can retaliate these issues in a smart city environment.

Socio–demographic Impacts on the Personal Savings Portfolio Choice - a Decision Tree Approach

Insufficiently developed financial system, poor standard of living and inappropriate education of citizens on the saving products, lead to low level of investment in the financial market of developing countries. In this paper special attention is paid to examining the socio-demographic profile of Montenegrin citizens that invest their funds in some of the offered form of savings, as well as examining main factors that restrict their investment. For this purpose, data collected through the survey of Montenegrin citizens were processed using Decision Tree method. Survey results have shown that there is a low level of savings, as well as that citizens prefer deposits and life insurance products rather than pension plans and debt securities. Also, the results indicate that the main causes of the current state of savings in Montenegro are low standard of living, citizens´ poor awareness and the financial system which causes the insufficiently attractive supply of savings.

Brief Case Study of PMMY Scheme in Karnataka

Small industries and start ups play an important role in raising the standard of living of our people, especially in rural areas of India. With the right support and resources, these MSMEs can add value to our country's economic condition. The current government has introduced various policies to encourage these MSMEs, namely MUDRA (Micro Unit Development and Refinancing Authority) which is another important step to ensure that these MSMEs . Mudra encourages people to become entrepreneurs and improve their livelihoods. This has enough money to finance these units. The paper highlights various small industries related to MUDRA and how MUDRA has helped increase their performance over the past three years in Karnataka. Keywords: MUDRA, GDP, MSMES GOI

Marketing: Farmers Promulgates Cash Crops, Itinerary to Support Their Livelihood and Enhance Their Living Standard

This paper is a briefing on the marketing and emergence of cash crops in the Indo-Bangladesh border, South West Khasi Hills District Meghalaya. It is solely aimed at understanding the inborn entrepreneurship skills of the particular sub-tribe of the Khasis called "War". They live in steep and sloppy mountains with moderate temperatures and receive sufficient precipitation throughout the year, which enables them to sustain their farming. Marketing is the heart core of every individual, regardless of any background and professionals. Marketing plays a very important role to the farmers, and everyone could enhance their standard of living due to the technique of commercialization. The Non-farmers can buy the food crops from the farmers through the role of business administration. It is pointless to have money without having a food supply. Thus, the commercialization of agricultural produce is highly required. Cash crops cultivation promotes economic growth and social growth; economically, people can generate income, put savings, and purchase physical capital. Socially they bridged with each other, helping one another, exchanging work, advising the younger ones, and imparting knowledge to one another, providing seeds and saplings to the have not. There is an evolution from practicing traditional crops, which can be consumed directly, to Cash crops, which need to be exported outside of the State through a marketing system with the intention to manufacture further for finished products.

Review on Conservation of Water by Water Audit

Water is used almost in every sector, growth in population and increase in the standard of living of people so demand is increased. Water is used by all the living creatures found in the world but a very small portion of water is available for drinking and other purposes. This available usable water is mismanaged by human beings, for this mismanagement of water introducing a tool by IWA/AWWA is water-audit. Water-audit is used for reducing water-losses, leakages and gives the information of water used by consumers. Environment audit carried out in stages, water audit also consists of many stages. In this review paper, case studies are highlighted, which gives the general methodology adopted for auditing. Water balance sheet is very useful for understanding the types of losses and type of water used in particular DMA (District Metered Area). Due to the loss of water Non-revenue water is increased, for reducing losses requires huge investments.