Today, that can not ever happen. If you are penniless in America, you can not afford to get an education. If you are penniless you can not start a business. If you are penniless, when you die, you will not be much more. And unfortunately this holds true for every Western Industrialized country as well. The sad truth is that if you do not start with a little bit of wealth, you will not die with wealth. That said if you are born with a lot of wealth you may very well die with none, but it is not likely. If you have wealth, you will go to the best schools and get the best tutors and very likely never be hungry ever.
And there is a chance that if you have a little bit of wealth, you can make it grow into a lot of wealth. After all you can not make a fortune in the stock market unless you have a little money to invest. And most of all, you can have a million ideas that you could make your fortune on, but if you do not have the starting capital you will never realize your dream and you will never make a dime.
So, I know that my dreams will for always be unforfilled, but luckily my dreams do not have me making money, even though they would make money, that is not my drive. So, since my drive is to see them made real and to see people profitting from them I should share.
One dream is to supply the isolated regions of the world with food so that they do not have to import it. Importing food is expensive: the food costs a lot more to moved a long distance basic food stuffs can cost many times what they cost where there are lots of people, importing food costs a lot of green house gasses, many places have to fly perishable foods in and flying uses a lot of fuel as does driving hundreds to thousands of kilometers. It is costly for the health of the people, good food costs a lot but imperishable junkfood costs less and increases health concerns.
So my idea is to set up hydroponic greenhouses in distant locations. Particular locations would be the Northern portions of Canada. The test locations would not be as profitable as the ideal locations but because of what is involved it is better to use areas that have more people nearby. Good locations would be Edmonton Alberta and the area, Northern Ontario like Thunder Bay or Kapuskasing, Central Quebec like Val d'Or or Chibougamou and Labrador.
It would entail building a greenhouse, well insulated for the winters with ready access to power for lights. All those locations would not have a shortage of power, but the trick is to tap into deep geothermal heat. The geothermal heat has two purposes, the primary purpose would be to heat the greenhouses in the winter and cool the greenhouses in the summertime, if it is needed. The second use would be to provide cheaper heat for the community. The geothermal wells would have to be in the neighbourhood of 1000m deep as the isothermal gradient of the earth is typically 2.5°C per 100m. Twice that depth would be better to reduce the cost of hot water in the community but the largest expense of the operation is boring the wells.
The true locations would be further a field, in more extreme locations like Iqaluit, Yellowknife, Whitehorse, Inuvik, and other locations like northern Alaska, Iceland and other remote locations where food must be expensively transported. Away from a continuous reliable power source, wind and solar power would have to fill the gap, generation of the light need not been continuous, but wind generation is usually greater at night and in winter. Additionally wind is generally greater where there are no trees.
Cheaper more reliable food that is less expensive for the people, but can still get a good profit. Supplying heat in colder climates would also generate profit and lower greenhouse emissions. Growing food would not be a carbon sink, but not transporting the food would and depending on if there are carbon taxes or carbon trading arrangements, this type of enterprise would be a good benefit.
If you are building infrastructure to build a greenhouse and heating it with geothermally heated water it would cost next to nothing to add a fish farm. Locked off from possible contamination to local waterways, heated water to optimal temperatures, fed with additional food from the greenhouse, the fish can provide a source of cheap protein for locals who do not have a local source. Ideally a vegetarian Carp species would be best, they prefer warmer temperatures, and are naturally vegetarian and so would suffer less on that diet. The fish would also fertilize the plants and additional natural fertilizers can be acquired from the community.
The real problem is the start up funds and that is why I will never be rich. Of course, it might be a crappy idea too.
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