Business Opportunities Weblog

Solving the World’s Problems for Profit

By on April 15, 2013 in Ideas

Photo by alwaysnevernyc

NY Times:

“A billion customers in the world,” Dr. Paul Polak told a crowd of inventors recently, “are waiting for a $2 pair of eyeglasses, a $10 solar lantern and a $100 house.”

The world’s cleverest designers, said Dr. Polak, a former psychiatrist who now runs an organization helping poor farmers become entrepreneurs, cater to the globe’s richest 10 percent, creating items like wine labels, couture and Maseratis.

“We need a revolution to reverse that silly ratio,” he said.

To that end, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, which is housed in Andrew Carnegie’s 64-room mansion on Fifth Avenue and offers a $250 red chrome piggy bank in its gift shop, is honoring inventors dedicated to “the other 90 percent,” particularly the billions of people living on less than $2 a day.

Photo by alwaysnevernyc.

poverty

Business Opportunities Weblog editor and publisher Dane Carlson lives in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, just 15 miles from Yosemite National Park. He accidentally became a professional blogger in 2001. He has added 12,203 posts to the site.

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  • http://www.superpowersactivate.com/ David Yorka

    There may be a short-fall in “visible” jobs…there is no shortage of work.

  • Dennis Murphy

    I am heartened to see serious global issues capturing wider public attention. As a recent retiree, my goal at http://www.RetirementTrends.com is to tap into the energy and talent of the 75 million other retiring boomers to help bring about a more peaceful and sustainable world.