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This made me think that often giving money is not the best way to help. Microcredit has been tried and don't fix everything. A development economist made a stro
by gbog 14y ago
This made me think that often giving money is not the best way to help. Microcredit has been tried and don't fix everything. A development economist made a strong point showing that micro deposit was more likely to be helpful, for example incountries were it was not culturally acceptable to hold some tangible wealth when some neighbours are in need (in some parts of Kenya, people tend to eat all their corn once harvested as fast as possible to avoid having to give a part of it to... faster eaters).
Also, buying goods from peasants in poor countries is a more sustainable way to help. Just imagine an Amazon or a Taobao where you buy spices or coffee straight from the producer.
edit and move: In fact, a part of the pleasure of eating a good baguette is because you bought it to the boulangerie and met the guy who made it, or his wife. Same with cheese, or even more with wine (the summun of wine-snobism in to drink bottles that you got from the chateaux' cellar)
The Nescafe coffee I drink don't give me any pleasure of this kind, because I am not (or try not to be) emotionally affected by brands and commercials. But reversing the arrow: I would be fine and happy with buying my coffee grains from a Watsy-like website, choosing the guy and his family from a picture and short description (which is weak, but better than nothing). At least I would know who to curse if I found roaches in the bag (happened to me with industrial cereals).
- Evbn 14y agoSo you actively and intentionally promote inefficient production strategies, or want to be sold a fake image of pre-industrial cottage production that doesn't much exist, especially as prices you'd want to pay. That is not the way to lift people out of poverty. Better to buy cheap cheese and then pay someone to make bread for his neighbors.
- gbog 14y agoSorry, but in France and in China, the two countries I have lived in, it is easy to buy relatively cheap food that is not produced "efficiently" from food industries. Example: - bread, cheese and wine in France. I mean the cheese, not the plastic yellow industrial thing that hijacked the name. You could visit a cheese-making farm, I bet you won't say it is "efficient". - in Beijing, I buy my breakfast mantous (steamed buns) in a mantou place 30 meters away. I have seen the bags of wheat coming in the truck in the morning. They serve a block with very good mantous, but they are probably not as "efficient" as a couple of factories doing it for a 10M city. But obviously, these way to produce food is in long term much more efficient than factories. Why? Because good food is good for health, and food cannot be good and at the same time produced "efficiently" by robots in factories.
- soneca 14y ago"For every complex problem there is a simple and wrong solution." Sorry, I don't know who I am quoting. But I don't think we should be that skeptical. I guess that some markets may support this model with strong economic basis, not creating an artificial (and not sustainable) production and distribution system. Imagine markets where you don't pay for the production costs or even design, but for the brand. Maybe personalized clothes? My mother create skirts for my girlfriend and sisters that they prefer instead of brand skirts that cost $50. Poor people with a good marketplace could sell these personalized clothes. Also, improving local economy is a very strong strategy. Social currencies (I don't know what is called in english, but I mean a currency that is only valid and accepted inside a particular community) may improve a lot local communities.
- eli_gottlieb 14y agoI dunno, the bakeries here in Haifa that bake their own bread, cakes, burekas, and other things seem pretty successful, actually. The product is certainly good enough that I prefer it over the supermarket bakery, and the prices are competitive.