I admit to have fallen prey to some of the myths surrounding poverty. Specifically, the myth of how "ineffective" aid is and has been. While always a proponent of it, I was unaware of the amount of abject poverty that has already been eliminated in my lifetime. I had a definite sense of improvement, but no sense of the scope.
I've tried to explain some of the things presented in this letter to radical liberal friends. They can't believe that the world is or has in any way gotten better over the last few decades, I find it frustrating. They all think that I'm a market capitalist scumbag.
Reminds me of this film by Hans Rosling: http://hubski.com/pub?id=126699
Basically, they come to the same conclusions concerning "poor countries are doomed to stay poor" and "saving lives leads to overpopulation". A film worth watching. It re-iterates what is said in the letter, but i find he presents the data in a very accessible way, which is very important if we want to get rid of those misconceptions. I'm happy the letter gets the attention it deserves, I was a bit disappointed it didn't get shared when I posted two days ago.
Bill Gates on Charlie Rose. This covers a lot of what the article does, but I think it goes into some interesting directions. I particularly like what Gates has to say about the need for deep expertise in the US government at around the 47 minute mark.
The differentiation humans make between "us" and "them" is fairly well-documented. Anyway, this is an excellent article. The bottom line is that this is an issue which can't be generalized into oblivion. Both the above and this are likely accurate ... but we shouldn't be capricious with our aid money with little forethought.There is a double standard at work here. I’ve heard people calling on the government to shut down some aid program if one dollar of corruption is found. On the other hand, four of the past seven governors of Illinois have gone to prison for corruption, and to my knowledge no one has demanded that Illinois schools be shut down or its highways closed.