Poverty Inc (2014) is about the decline of the Haitian economy through various means. It begins with Haiti having a naturally poor economy. In response to this many people in the united states decide to donate to the people of Haiti. The united states government even decides to subsidize American farmers to bring cheap rice to the country of Haiti. Donating sounds nice but the result is the weakening of the country's natural economy making the people reliant on handouts. The economy is weakened by the bulk goods being released by the donors making it impossible for local businesses to enter their own market due to the extreme competition. In poverty inc, it shows the viewer the effects of the united states post world war two policies that affect the economies of nations on a global scale and demonstrate what the global policies do to the people of the nations on the receiving end. Poverty inc shows us the effects by giving first-person accounts of what goes on when too much aid is provided or aid is improperly implemented in an economy.
Aid is an important tool that individuals, organizations, and the government use to boost the quality of life for individuals experiencing a hard time. Aid has an immediate impact on individuals receiving it and it is often very positive in the short term. Aid's
downside is it has a negative effect on an economy in the long term. When a country is receiving aid the country will experience an abundance of cheap products leading to an extremely high optionality. High optionality is a good thing to have for the consumer of the products but the increased competition in the market makes local businesses go out of business. If the local market cannot function because the competition is too great the local production infrastructure will decline. This hurts any entrepreneurs within the receiving nation and decreases value overall in both nations. Destroying the local economy makes the receiving nation reliant on the donation of other nations. If the donating nation decides to suddenly stop supplying the market starvation will occur because the local entrepreneurs do not have the means to produce. Aid may sound nice but it removes value from the donating country and prevents the ability to create value in the receiving nation. Entrepreneurs are the backbone of society, they produce value for the other members of society and allow life as we know it to function. Removing the entrepreneurs from the picture and making the people of a nation reliant on donations is a form of imperialism. This can be a valuable tool for entrepreneurs from foreign countries to capitalize on the situation but it only impoverishes the people of the receiving nation. This can turn into a moral debate but the manner in which the market was manipulated was by a government body and not other entrepreneurs. Government interference in the market only makes it difficult for entrepreneurs to create value for the people around them.
