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| User | Post |
| Arwon Posts: 479/631 |
Microcredit? Yeah it's interesting, it's been the flavour of the month in Development Studies circles for quite a while. Builds on the work of people like de Soto and totally fits in with the current fashion of believing in the need to help the poor help themselves. Moreover, it fills in a real large gap in the absence of the ability to access small-scale financial services, even things like savings accounts and cheap credit.
I'm not sure this alone is an answer, though... it smells too much of intellectual trend and just being a flabour of the month. There's still some fairly major structural factors stacked against them in terms of the nature of the world economy and the gap between the formal and informal economies. The worry is that things like public health, welfare, city infrastructure and education are going to suffer because of the fashion for governments believing in microcredit so completely. There have also been serious questions raised about the effectiveness of the idea in several respects. Does it reach the poorest of the poor? Does it actually reduce poverty? Are the interest rates excessive? Does it lead to dependency (there are a LOT of repeat borrowers)? As long as it's not used as an argument against other forms of aid and poverty reduction and stuff, it seems quite valuable... let's just not get carried away. |
| emcee Posts: 684/867 |
I saw the guy who started this on The Daily Show yesterday. I really like this idea, because it takes a pragmatic approach to the problem of poverty. It builds self reliance, rather then just dealing in hand outs.
I don't see what this has to do socialism though. This seems to be a decidedly capitalist approach to the problem. |
| Rom Manic Posts: 432/557 |
The entrepreneurs
The article Well, as it turns out it looks like the world is one step closer to being a socialist empire. This is exactly what the world economy needs for a jumpstart into bringing poor countries into booming powerhouses. I always wanted to do something similar, except with extremely cheaper car insurance. Discuss. |
