@sama: i think you've chosen the wrong format to do this. To lower cost of living, i.e. transform the economy is a huge task , that would require much more research effort than a thread.

On the other hand , you've got access to an extremely talented and large group of people, and if you steered them towards a group of sub communities all highly focused on working together to find solutions to each of the individual sub problems - than i'm sure we'll see lots of great ideas and insights.

That's all assuming it's possible to build such collaboration. But the goal is so appealing to many , so i think it's possible.