The Next 4 Billion?

"Four billion low-income people, a majority of the world’s population, constitute the base of the economic pyramid. New empirical measures of their behavior as consumers and their aggregate purchasing power suggest significant opportunities for market-based approaches to better meet their needs, increase their productivity and incomes, and empower their entry into the formal economy." (Hammond et al, The Next 4 Billion: Market Size and Business Strategy at the Base of the Pyramid, 2007)

"One of the most significant obstacles blocking native economic 'progress' was the ability of the natives to find satisfactions at relatively low and stable consumption levels... Outsiders quickly realised that if tribal peoples could somehow be made to reject the material satisfactions provided by their own cultures and if they could be successfully urged to desire more and more industrial goods, they would become far more willing participants in the cash economy." (Bodley, Victims of Progress, 1982)

Food for thought.