Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

PaterFamilias Today

Home
Evangelical
Poverty is Big Business

Poverty is Big Business

Last updated on: June 23, 2016 at 10:11 pm by C. R. Wiley

Poverty is Big Business 2016-06-23T22:11:16-04:00 C. R. Wiley

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

http://www.simplecinemafilms.com/poverty_inc

Watching Poverty, Inc. made me angry like I’ve not been in a long time. It’s a great documentary.

I’ve been poor: American-style, food-stamp, housing-project, bad-school poor. I even survived all the things the helping professionals did to help me.

But I’ve also been rich. And in between I’ve even worked with and along side poor people. And I know from my own experience that most of the stuff the beautiful people do for the poor is more about looking beautiful and feeling beautiful than it is about actually helping poor people.

The moral of Poverty, Inc. is this: you should start believing in poor people and stop believing in the people who say they’re trying to help them.

I’ve got some things to say about the film, a few of them based on my experiences. But before I do here’s the official trailer.

So, here are my thoughts:

We’ve got the incentives backward

People do what they’re paid to do. If you really think that people can overcome self-interest and act without any regard for their own interests, you’re likely part of the problem.

Think about it this way: how do we measure success? Often it is through growth. When it comes to a normal, profitable enterprise, growth is a good thing. Sure, that can go awry, and things can get too big. But much of the time it is what you’re after because for the people working in a for-profit venture, profit often equals security. In other words, it means knowing you can pay the mortgage and put food on the table for the foreseeable future.

But how do the professional poverty fighters measure success?

I think you can see where I’m going with this. They measure it by growth too: the growth of bureaucracy, growth in donations, and so forth. These things also mean you can pay the bills and put food on the table.

You know what they don’t measure? How many poverty fighting ventures they close each year because they’ve met the needs and they are no longer needed.

Here’s the test. Have you ever gotten a letter from any poverty-fighting business that read: Great news! We’re no longer needed in (fill-in-the-blank)! Please don’t send us anymore money! Mission accomplished!

The same perverse disincentive works among the poor. Why do something productive when being dependent requires less of you? And this brings me to…

Helping is hurting!

Throughout Poverty, Inc. time and again we see the ways the things the wealthy do to help the poor actually put the poor out of business.

Ever wonder why Africans are almost always pictured wearing Red Sox and Backstreet Boys t-shirts and not their native dress? It’s because of those stupid yellow Planet Aid clothes bins, that’s why. Not only has used clothes dumping wiped out the textile industry in West Africa, hardly anyone can make a living growing cotton there anymore.

Why pay for locally produced clothing when you can pick up a pair of used Dockers for free at the clothing distribution center? And “social entrepreneurs” like Toms have actually made undermining local economies part of their business model.

Truly, it is more profitable to give than to receive. It makes you feel good too. Which brings me to…

It’s a huge ego trip.

This is probably the most distasteful thing about the business of poverty. “Social entrepreneurs” and celebrities like Madonna and Bono are not giving away stuff, they’re buying self-righteousness. (Yes, I know that’s harsh, but I’m not taking it back.)

Just think about all the feel-good songs they sing, songs like “We Are the World”. Or take, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” Just look at the looks of self-congratulations on the faces of the cast of Glee as they sing. (I think I’m going to be ill.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emIi-uo4I8I

I recall the disgust and sense of violation some of my Ethiopian friends felt back in the early 90s following the famine there. What bothered them is the rest of the world only knew about the famine. Ethiopia was synonymous with starvation. And this was due in part from We Are the World.

So what needs to change?

This is where Poverty, Inc. sends a very unwelcome message to some ideologues. Good, old-fashioned bourgeois values work.

But in order for them to work you need at least two things.

The rule of law

And not just the rule of law in most general sense, specifically you need property rights. (See what I mean about an unwelcome, even uncool, message?)

What the poor need is fair laws, justly applied. Big Poverty undermines this through its perverse incentive systems, its patronage, and the dependency it fosters.

When the poor know that the work of their hands, and their interests, will be fairly defended in court, they get to work creating wealth.

Unsurprisingly, the bureaucracies in these countries, just like in the rest of the world, undermine property rights.

When bureaucrats become parasites and lose sight of the public good they are entrusted to serve, you can be sure that people who want to get ahead in the world will work for the government instead of for themselves. No, let me put that another way, they’ll turn government work into a way to work for themselves instead of serving the public good.

Local banking

There’s a lot of attention directed toward “micro-banking” by the beautiful people–giving tiny loans to very poor people, often women. And this is fine. At the other end, you have the big international banks, both quasi-governmental and private, that only work with big entities, such as governments and multi-national corporations. What’s missing is the middle.

Small and mid-sized businesses are starving for capital. These don’t have the heart-tugging appeal of the poor-woman with three small children, nor do they have the “this will change the world!” pump-up the volume appeal of big public works projects.

Usually these are run by upwardly mobile and ambitious men. (Which threatens the petty bureaucrats and runs counter to the misandry of the “tip-over-patriarchy!” crowd.) But until these men get their hands on capital, things aren’t going to get better for the poor.

There’s more to this film, plenty more. You can watch it just about everywhere. (I viewed it on Netflix.)

I hope just about everyone will take the time to watch it.

Previous Post

June 17, 2016

The Tyranny of Pity Manipulation

Next Post

June 24, 2016 Brexit and The Great Homogenizator

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Advising a Daughter Aristotle Art Atheism Author and Speaking Appearances Beauty Building Working Houses C R Wiley Children Community Creativity Cultural Apologetics Fatherhood Fiction Fidelity in marriage Film Freedom Gravitas H. P. Lovecraft Happiness Household Economy Infant Baptism Inklings Interpreting the Bible Interviews Jack Donovan Liturgy Localism Man of the House Manliness Martial Virtue Medieval Cosmology Metaphysics Mortimus Clay NecronomiCon New Left New Testament Household Codes Nietzsche Nominalism/Realism Politics Poverty Preaching Productive Property Reaching men Science Self-Sufficiency Side Hustles Social Ethics Social Security Spiritual Disciplines Sublime Techno-gnosticism The Pastor's Survival Guide Theology of the Family Tradition Uncategorized Virtue Weird Fiction

Select a Month February 2019 November 2018 October 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does the Greek word 'Logos' mean in the Bible?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Grace Life Truth Word

Books by This Author Books by PaterFamilias Today

See All Titles »

Books by C. R. Wiley

The Purloined Boy (The Weirdling Cycle #1)

C. R. Wiley

Man of the House: A Handbook for Building a Shelter That Will Last in a World That Is Falling Apart

C. R. Wiley