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Give a man a fish, he becomes dependant on your fish. Yes, teaching him to fish takes longer, but it's better. > how are you going to even think about getting

Give a man a fish, he becomes dependant on your fish. Yes, teaching him to fish takes longer, but it's better. > how are you going to even think about getting education? You start with an education on how to survive better. You don't need to start with an advanced education.

Matumio 11y ago
You can teach people how to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, but some of them have no boots, so it's not entirely fair.
- swasheck 11y ago
  life's not fair ... but expecting someone to pull themselves up by their bootstraps when they have no boots is cruel and denies the advantage that "you" (the teacher) most likely started with a pair of boots, at least.
swasheck 11y ago
the whole teach-a-man-to-fish thing is a nice saying that really helps with things outside of the jurisdiction of macroeconomics. at its core, it makes more sense to me to interpret it from the one lending aid than the one being aided. in other words, it's advice given to the teacher to seek systematic justice and fairness and not simply engage in simple, punctiliar acts of mercy. however, neither of these should exist in a vacuum. act with mercy and work toward justice. the hard part about this is that there needs to be more of an emphasis on understanding and contextualizing justice within any given culture. "fishing" in guyana may look very different than "fishing" in guinea which may look very different than "fishing" in the philippines.
Fargren 11y ago
Unless he starves while you are teaching him because you didn't give him the fish. Or he's so famished that he can't realisitically pay enough attention to learn. Many people are already dependant in "the fish", whether or not you give it to them.
DanBC 11y ago
"I live in drought ridden land locked Africa. Stop teaching me to fish; there are no fish here."
DasIch 11y ago
Unless of course that man is competing against heavily subsidized large scale fishing companies from industrialized countries, that export to his own country and can undercut his prices. Free trade and free markets are truly amazing, aren't they?
- pdeuchler 11y ago
  If it's "heavily subsidized" then it's not free trade and free markets... (unless you were going for sarcasm there)

Matumio 11y ago

You can teach people how to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, but some of them have no boots, so it's not entirely fair.

swasheck 11y ago
life's not fair ... but expecting someone to pull themselves up by their bootstraps when they have no boots is cruel and denies the advantage that "you" (the teacher) most likely started with a pair of boots, at least.

swasheck 11y ago

the whole teach-a-man-to-fish thing is a nice saying that really helps with things outside of the jurisdiction of macroeconomics. at its core, it makes more sense to me to interpret it from the one lending aid than the one being aided. in other words, it's advice given to the teacher to seek systematic justice and fairness and not simply engage in simple, punctiliar acts of mercy. however, neither of these should exist in a vacuum. act with mercy and work toward justice. the hard part about this is that there needs to be more of an emphasis on understanding and contextualizing justice within any given culture. "fishing" in guyana may look very different than "fishing" in guinea which may look very different than "fishing" in the philippines.

Fargren 11y ago

Unless he starves while you are teaching him because you didn't give him the fish. Or he's so famished that he can't realisitically pay enough attention to learn. Many people are already dependant in "the fish", whether or not you give it to them.

DanBC 11y ago

"I live in drought ridden land locked Africa. Stop teaching me to fish; there are no fish here."

DasIch 11y ago

Unless of course that man is competing against heavily subsidized large scale fishing companies from industrialized countries, that export to his own country and can undercut his prices. Free trade and free markets are truly amazing, aren't they?

pdeuchler 11y ago
If it's "heavily subsidized" then it's not free trade and free markets... (unless you were going for sarcasm there)