Its true that we should look into the root causes of each of these so called "sins" but I don't think what you are saying is particularly likely. I'll search a

Its true that we should look into the root causes of each of these so called "sins" but I don't think what you are saying is particularly likely. I'll search around for studies, but I would bet its far more likely that these goods are being consumed to take the edge off life (as this article suggests). Indeed, a recent field study in Sri Lanka reveals that more than 10 percent of poor male respondents regularly spend their entire incomes on alcohol. Certainly the medicinal argument can't be made here. Even though alcohol kills germs, consuming it in large amounts produce a net harm on your health. If 10% of males are spending their entire income on alcohol, then its likely that a large portion of them are spending a large portion of their income on alcohol, so much that they are doing more harm to their bodies than good. In addition, the fact that they spend money on festivals argues that they are doing things to take the edge off life and not doing this for medicinal purposes. In part, I imagine this article is a reaction to a lot of people discussing how innovative the poor are and saying "if we could just give them a chance, they'll pull themselves out of poverty." This, really, is the basis of the microfinance industry. To some degree, its true. Poor villagers in India often are often engaged in a large number of (informal) financial transaction at any time. They have various loans with various money lenders, things they borrowed from neighbors, self help groups, etc... all of which they keep track of without a pen and paper (much less a computer). In addition, there are many instances of well-intentioned people getting things wrong. (One example is that many MFIs required that their loans be used on profit-making activities, and not refinancing loans to money lenders. This is foolish because the loans to money lenders are often at a higher rate and just refinancing that loan would help them immensely as well as almost guaranteeing the repayment of the micro loan). However, its not clear to me that this translates to the ability to quickly jump into the formal economy without protection. This projection is necessary and thats what the article is arguing for. In the end though, I do agree with something you are saying. Its critical that the entire problem be approached, not just the lack of money. This approach is hard to sell because it is slower and doesn't produce a magic bullet/catch phrase to sell, but its probably the only way to make a proper dent in the problem. This is why government intervention is critical. Even if this is a profitable exercise, it would be a very long term investment with uncertain returns, something that a profit driven enterprise is unlikely to take on and something that NGOs aren't big or coordinated enough to solve[1]. [1] Since this website attracts a lot of entrepreneurs, I suggest that there is a startup idea hidden here. I don't know how this would work, but if anyone has ideas, I say we discuss them.