ABOUT | GrowAllWealth

GrowAllWealth strives to generate ideas of economic inclusivity and opportunities for the rich and poor harmoniously.

My Curiosity

Initial stages

The raw thought

What's next?

Let's become richer. The rich become richer and the poor become richer, I’m not trying to solve wealth inequality, I’m just trying to pull out those stuck in the ditch that is poverty while benefiting those who already live in mansions and own private jets. I want to understand why people choose to spend money, and how people choose to give up things in order to earn money. Therefore, I want to know how to incentivize the rich to grasp economic growth through the form of investment, and the poor to want to experience economic growth in more contemporary ways.

I first encountered the UN Sustainable Development Goals when I was in the fourth grade, and at first I was very intrigued. It was the year 2015, and I have heard that countries around the world still have 15 years to meet the goals in 2030. As years went by, I started participating in more organizations and staying more aware about the current state of the world in terms of reaching this goal. 2020 came around and I decided to join an online course led by Jeffrey Sachs, a renowned economist, and I heard him say something that is still engraved in my mind, 1% of the wealth of 10 of the world’s richest people would be sufficient to solve 8 of the 17 goals. So I started wondering why - why did these 10 people not want to give up 1%. So I read books by behavioral economists about incentives and reached a peak in my interest. As such, the goal of my project is to utilize resources from the rich efficiently and effectively without risk of return so that there is decent wage and sustained economic growth.

My research led me to draw a map. At first, I needed to visualize the connecting point between the rich and the poor. So I drew the plan of a town where there would be a school, housing, a hospital, a place of work (which I decided would be a renewable energy factory), and whatever else a basic town would need. I imagined it as an isolated system, the town is self-dependent, and only relies on the support of a philanthropist, and in this case, one of the richest people on Earth. Then I tried to convert this town to have numerical values. I could see the town, but I couldn’t understand it until I put some numbers to it. So I did research about average costs to build a school, a hospital, and my personal favorite, “how much money do the richest guys in the world really have?” So I put it all into a google spreadsheet, so that the numbers would make sense and do what numbers do, make a formula. I used formulas to calculate how long it would take families of different sizes to leave this community by paying back their share of the loan and finally escaping the poverty trap. But to make this a little more engaging, I thought turning it into an interactive game might be more captivating, so that’s what I did.

As I enter college/university in Fall 2024, I will continue working on this project with the goal of finding an equilibrium between financial and social incentive. There are a few aspects to my next steps:

I want to develop this idea and skeleton quantitative simulation into a full-fledged video game. I hope to be able to learn from experienced video game creators and computer science engineers as I find a visually engaging and even simpler way to convey the idea of sustainable economic growth. I have already begun studying Python through online university courses and will deepen that knowledge to develop the game myself.
With the guidance of experts in the field, I aim to identify other limitations (collecting more accurate empirical evidence mentioned before and gaining a better understanding of the realistic implementation of such a simulation in regard to public policy). There are many professors and experts who have conducted research on this area that it would be my dream to work with.
- Michael Boskin - Stanford
- Richard Thaler - UChicago
- Aislinn Bohren - UPenn
- Gigi Gatti - Sr. Direcstor of Program Strategy and Learning at Grameen Foundation
- David Cooper - Director of the Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN).
Furthermore, as a Rise Global Finalist, I am given the opportunity to attend workshops and gain advice from many influential business leaders and change-makers around the world. In a survey cited by CNBC “The same survey asked financial advisors why their wealthy clients don’t give more. The top responses were that they were worried about (a) leaving to their heirs enough (b) leaving for themselves (c ) they would rather give to “elite” causes 75% of what they give, vs more directly to solve SDGs of decent wage that would drive economic growth. So, in essence, I need to create a simulation that is engaging for this group of sophisticated financial advisors who have the ear to the billionaires. But, why would they listen to me? Over the next few years, I hope to search for opportunities through which I can work with people working with the "10 richest people" (the highest financial bracket) so I can better understand what their needs and desires are so that the simulation can be viable partnership where both the rich and the poor are satisfied with their growth.

Thank you

Starting from the conception of the idea, to thinking about potential variables, to researching about the projects that have been tried to propel economic growth, to experimenting with experimenting with equations that can result in "the shortest time possible", to the thought of turning into something interactive and not a research paper, to being encouraged to apply for the Rise for the World Global Competition, to being supported to sharing the idea with the world through this website, none of it could be done alone.

Thank you to my AP Microeconomics, AP Macroeconomics, AP Computer Science, and AP Calculus AB teachers who provided feedback on my ideas and calculations.

Thank you to my parents for motivating me to continue pursuing my idea when I first told you about it while listening to the news during dinner.

Thank you to Rise for recognizing my idea and giving me the opportunity to share them with a community of passionate teenagers wanting to change the world.

Thank you to Equitech Futures for teaching me the power of technology and AI in creating socioeconomic impact.

Thank you to the books, authors, researchers, and professors who have created an immense body of knowledge on the topics of economic growth and psychology of incentives that has made me more curious about the topic each day. Specifically, my immersion in Poor Economics, The Armchair Economist, and Predictably Irrational that has opened my mind to the prospect of creating new ideas instead of just following the rules and formulas written by those before me.