After watching and evaluating the documentary called Poverty Inc. It is understood that with all the so called “help” countries in poverty get that it actually hurts them more when these countries are getting free supplies. For example, in the documentary there were multiple people affected by the imports of free resources. A farmer in Rwanda ends up going out of business as a consequence of American Church importing free eggs to the hungry. Farmers for rice in Haiti terminated their growing of rice, which was once a delegacy, but now is cheap with farmers from the United States sending over cheap rice. Even cobblers In Africa have gone out of business due to TOMS shoes being sent out for free. From my perspective, this documentary shows how local entrepreneurs are affected by other countries trying to help out with their economy and poverty in general. This is entrepreneurial in a learning aspect by business owners going out of business because of countries sending resources. Since the countries in poverty are receiving these resources, it is hard for entrepreneurs to sell their own products if the country is already getting them for free. No consumer will pay for a product if they can get it for free, that is just a fact. With resources and goods being free, the demand to pay for those resources or goods drops very significantly. What was interesting to me about the documentary was the company called, Enersa, that was based in Haiti. They had innovated from using electrical power for their street lights and made them into solar lights considering they did not have power and made a very successful business. But after the tragic earthquake in 2010, the United States had raised money to provide solar panels for Haiti which took a toll on their business and made them struggle. This aspect of entrepreneurship affects society pretty harshly. This is because people are not buying from local entrepreneurs but are getting their goods for free, thus putting the whole country’s economy out of whack which only worsens poverty instead of fixing it. The document explains that society as a whole wants to support these local businesses but not having money because of no jobs being available makes it hard to support them. With society not able to support businesses, Micro Finance Institutions are introduced to entrepreneurs to support these businesses instead so that jobs can be created and help develop business to thrive. The interaction with this aspect of entrepreneurship and society can be described as awareness. Business owners as well as the rest of society are aware that their economy is at an off set when countries import resources to help. Society in the countries suffering from poverty, like the help they receive but it needs to be the right kind of help. Citizens in Poverty countries want jobs and help with the extension of owned businesses so that the economy can be back in a continuous loop of production of goods and resources in their own country.
