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Stephen Covey gives a useful framework: Do the intersection of your ability, the existing need, your interest, and the important. Ask yourself, "What can I do (
by dpatru 15y ago
Stephen Covey gives a useful framework: Do the intersection of your ability, the existing need, your interest, and the important. Ask yourself, "What can I do (ability) that other people value (need), that I like (interest) and that I feel is ultimately important?
Also, before you embark on saving the world, you might want to study a little Austrian economics. A lot of charity work and government programs are inefficient or actually contributing to poverty because they are contrary to economic law. You don't want spend few years of your life trying to solve poverty only to realize that you've been part of the problem.
In general, societies become wealthy when they are virtuous and economically free. Virtue causes them to generate and keep wealth. Economic freedom helps them build wealth efficiently. If you want to make any society richer from a macro level, you might focus on improving one or both of these: help that society become more virtuous and more free.
Regarding virtue, you might work to decrease drunkenness (Alcoholics Annonymous), drug use, and other vices. These activities harm individuals and their families and contribute to poverty.
Regarding freedom, you might work in politics to protect property rights, to have sound money and market prices, to allow people to work without licensing and other artificial restrictions, to reduce taxes. You can also work to spread price information and make markets more efficient (Craigslist, EBay and AirBnB do this.)
On a lower abstract level, you can work to produce some good or service which people value but is in short supply. That is, find a popular, over-priced good or service, and offer it at a lower price and better quality. Khan Academy is doing this for K-12 education.
- zokiboy 15y agoCan you give links to more information about Austrian economics and how it contributes to poverty?
- olalonde 15y agoHe made the opposite statement: Austrian economics contributes to ending poverty. If you have time, watch this documentary by Milton Friedman: http://freetochoose.tv http://freetochoose.tv
- dpatru 15y agoThe misunderstanding of economics contributes to poverty. The Austrian economists tend to write about this. For example, the minimum wage essentially makes it illegal for very unskilled workers to work. This was dramatically illustrated when the US government imposed a higher-than-market minimum-wage on the island of American Samoa and decimated the economy.[1] An economically-naive do-gooder, considering that a minimum wage helps poor people, might work hard for its passage, not understanding that the minimum wage actually hurts poor people. [1] Peter Schiff gives an excellent explanation of the result of the minimum-wage on American Samoa: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X25U_7mx9jU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X25U_7mx9jU
- daguar 15y agoWell, a problem with the Austrian framework in this context is that there are things we need to finance as social goods (desired outcomes by society at large) that can never be structured to be profitable. This is, incidentally, the classical economic case for both governmental provision of public goods, taxation, and regulation.
- dpatru 15y agoYou can take the idea of non-coercion and private property pretty far, without even considering the role of charity. See Rothbard's Ethics of Liberty(1) for ideas of how it might work. Also people are naturally motivated by more than commercial self-interest. This is why charities exist. 1-http://mises.org/rothbard/ethics/ethics.asp http://mises.org/rothbard/ethics/ethics.asp