What if no poverty is a myth?

We devise an imaginative timeline to address the denial of the non-existence of poverty. During this discussion, we will attempt to investigate the concept of relative poverty and base our analysis on a causal layered analysis framework: PESTLE¹.

For the purposes of this discussion, we will confine ourselves to the Indian scenario. Starting with a plausible future, assume that in 2024, a new XYZ party wins the general election in India. Following their victory, they enacted a minimum allowance law for all citizens in the court. In addition, they implement a modernized pension scheme modeled after the socialist countries of Eastern Europe. Now moving to a possible future, say according to UN reports, poverty in India has been cut in half by 2030, and India was declared a poverty-free country by 2045. In the year 2052, the World Trade Organization announces official recognition of virtual assets. Experts reinstate that virtual and real world assets cannot be evaluated with each other and that no transactions should be made across these channels in the year 2057, just 12 years after poverty clearance in India. To the surprise of many, both the virtual and real markets continue to thrive, but the market for cross-platform transactions collapses. Indian citizens stumble in middle ground with multiple groups stating different preferences.

At first glance, it appears that only those involved in cross-market trade will be affected, but a closer examination reveals that people now have the option of remaining in one half of the world. The society is divided into two sectors, one dealing with real world assets and the other with virtual assets. A person transitioning from one industry to another must start from scratch.

In this situation, the entire world falls into poverty as a result of a lack of resources to deal with and move on to other strata of society.

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¹ PESTLE: Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal, and Environmental. It is a management framework, adapted in this context as a modified version of STEEP by adding the Law aspect. PESTLE