This post is a response to "Is there a solution to poverty?" @llyran-noble/week-09-questions posed by
This is a very broad question, but I would say that there is a way to combat poverty that is different than the way we are used to. Before this week, I most likely would have answered "no, we have tried, and nothing seems to work." However, after watching the documentary Poverty, Inc. I have a new perspective.
What changed my mind?
Poverty, Inc was truly eye-opening. It gave me a glimpse into why the current system of fighting poverty is counter-productive and actually ends up hurting what it was intending to help. Here's why: when a country is flooded with so many free items, then the businesses inside that country are forced to shutdown because they cannot compete with free. Thus, it cripples the economy from the inside. Local businesses are not able to keep going because no one is going to pay for what they can get for free. For example, a man in the documentary mentions how rice in Haiti used to be a rare commodity, that people only enjoyed 2-3 times a week. Now, with subsidized rice coming in so often, it has become the most common food, and Haitians are eating it 3 times a day, 7 days a week (Poverty, Inc, min 15). Therefore, the farmers could not make a living and had to move to town in order to make a living. This resulted in just building slums in order to house more people. This shows that, although the heart to help is good, we are actually hurting the people more long term when we just give things for free. Not only does this hurt local businesses, but it also produces a people that are lazy and reliant on free things (min 10).
So, what then, is the solution?
The documentary talks about, rather than giving free things, coming in and partnering with the people. Rather than not allowing these countries to take part in world trade, giving them an opportunity to make something of themselves. A quote that describes this well is "they're not stupid, they're just disconnected from world trade" (min 4). We need to quit oppressing them and feeding into the poverty by keeping the same system. Something must change.
Source:
Poverty, Inc. directed by Michael Matheson Miller, https://www.povertyinc.org