|
|
Musings Report #1 1-3-15 Tackling Global Poverty: Charity Doesn't Work
You are receiving this email because you are one of the 500+ subscribers/major contributors to www.oftwominds.com.
For those who are new to the Musings reports: they are basically a glimpse into my notebook,the unfiltered swamp where I organize future themes, sort through the dozens of stories and links submitted by readers, refine my own research and start connecting dots which appear later in the blog or in my books. As always, I hope the Musings spark new appraisals and insights. Thank you for supporting the site and for inviting me into your circle of correspondents.
Thank You, 2015 Contributors
Each year, a handful of key suppporters of Of Two Minds make their annual outrageously generous contribution around the turn of the new year. I am in awe of their support of the site, and can only hope to repay their generosity with content worthy of their commitment.
Their names are: Karl L., Sarah/Fritz M., Susannah W., Anthony B., Don S., G. Wayne A., Ben G., John H., Paul L., Cheryl A., Kenneth C., John D'A., Rick R., Frank M., Daniel D., Robert B., James W., David K., Keith B., Richard H., Robert B., Daniel E. and John K.
Tackling Global Poverty: Charity Doesn't Work
As noted in my New Year's entry, I am adding a new focus to Of Two Minds in 2015: solving global poverty in a systemic, structural fashion.
The process of understanding the causes of entrenched poverty and distilling the only remedies that will systemically alleviate poverty has led me to surprising and perhaps radical conclusions.
The first is that Charity doesn't work. The reasons why charity doesn't work are many and complex, but the primary one is contained in the phrase "charity doesn't work"--charity does not provide paid work. Perversely, it often does the opposite--making people dependent on charity that is at the whim of distant, often-centralized organizations.
Some of the reasons that philanthropy/charity fail on a structural as well as a practical basis are explained in one of the most honest and best informed articles on the global "industry" of charity: Stop Trying to Save the World: Big ideas are destroying international development.
The psychology of poverty and charity are complex, as is our relationship to poverty and the notion of alleviating it with what are essentially gifts from the wealthy to the impoverished.
In thinking through the causes of poverty and reaching the conclusion that the only real solutions are radically systemic, I was forced to re-examine the entire notion of charity as a solution.
The problem with charity is two-fold. One is that on a practical level, it simply doesn't change the sources of poverty--at best, it alleviates the symptoms.
In this, it masks the true sources of entrenched poverty: the power structure and centrally controlled and distributed money. Its failure on a practical level, and its obscuring role, are both taboo topics in the industry of philanthropy, which thrives by elicting self-congratulatory purrings of donors.
The recognized source of charity is noble: the desire to alleviate the suffering of the less fortunate among us. But there are darker motivations as well that receive little to no recognition lest they disrupt the warm feelings generated by becoming a donor: that the act of charity is a form of guilt-alleviation, and a means of publicly affirming the donor's moral and spiritual superiority.
As correspondent G.F.B. pointed out, charities typically give short shrift to actual solutions--indeed, actually solving the problem would eliminate the role of the charity, its numerous staff and its donors.
Rather, the typical charity spends much of its energy on raising funds and making donors feel "special" with self-congratulatory galas and the like.
I know this indictment of charity's failure may seem harsh, but it is important to understand the self-serving nature of charity and its role in obscuring the real causes and real solutions to entrenched poverty--solutions which would necessarily disrupt the Status Quo power structure globally by disempowering the very elites who are pleased to alleviate their guilt and boost their public image of moral superiority.
We naturally want charity to work, and as a result we seek reasons to believe that some policy tweak will make charity effective. But charity will never work because it cannot provide paid work on a systemic basis.
Sadly, even the best-designed and funded efforts to change the sources of poverty end up not just failing but even making things worse for the target populace by making the community a magnet for the region's dispossessed seeking charity.
There is a systemic solution to global poverty, based on new tools that have only recently become available to humanity. This is the topic of my next book, and forthcoming Musings Reports.
Summary of the Blog This Past Week
Of Two Minds in 2015 1/1/15
2015 Housing Trends: Will the Echo Bubble Continue Expanding? 12/31/14
Should I Buy a House in 2015? 12/30/14
Don't Just Follow the Money--Follow the Income 12/29/14
Best Thing That Happened To Me This Week
The oustanding encouragement from longstanding contributors-readers. Thank you!
Market Musings: Long-Term Thoughts on Natural Gas
The current consensus is that soaring supply will keep natural gas prices low in the U.S. for the foreseeable future.
The chart of natural gas reflects the enormous pressure on prices brought about by fracking technologies.
Two factors will push prices higher in the longer term: one is the erosion of marginal players, wells and fields as those which are not profitable at current prices shut down, and 2) the globalization of domestic natural gas prices via liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports.
I see the globalization of natural gas pricing as inevitable, and that will eventually mean domestic prices align with global prices, which are 2 or 3 times higher.
There are conflicting reports about the number of marginal players, wells and fields. As correspondent Mark G. has observed, the boom-era mentality in fracking natural gas created very high prices as demand for rigs, supplies and labor soared. Now that the truly marginal players and wells will be shutting down (or at a very minimum, ceasing to expand), supplies of labor, rigs, parts, etc., will increase as demand slackens, effectively pushing costs of production down for the first time since the boom began.
This decline in costs means players currently deemed marginal may in fact not be marginal once their fixed costs decline.
The current glut in natural gas will be remedied by one well-known feature of fracking--the rapid fall-off in production from new wells. If expansion ceases, overall production will decline as the yield from current wells drops dramatically.
Rather than a future of $2 natural gas for years/decades to come, I expect a longer-term range of $5-$6--and the possibility that the gap around $10 will eventually get filled, despite the consensus that this is "impossible."
From Left Field
An Astronaut's Guide to Optimism (1:47) (via GFB)
The Elusive Chinese Dream: Perhaps the most urgent fear is this: a sense among even those Chinese whose living standards have soared that frantic development has come at too high a price.
Bankers See $1 Trillion of Zombie Investments Stranded in the Oil Fields (via Joel M.)
Five Reasons for Slow Growth (via Lew G.) a summary by economist Michael Spence
Science Says Lasting Relationships Come Down To 2 Basic Traits -- well worth the time....
The Man Who Destroyed America's Ego--Roy Baumeister and self-esteem -- dismantling the quasi-religion of self-esteem as the arbiter of mental health and happiness...
The loneliness of the Chinese birdwatcher -- off the beaten track...
Science Shows How People With Messy Desks Are Actually Different Than Everyone Else -- my unending guilt over my messy desk has finally been dissipated!
Japan’s sexual apathy is endangering the global economy -- a bit breathless, but makes a point about demand destruction and what I term the "social depression" in Japan...
Where slavery thrived, inequality rules today
More than a century later, some experts say, a terrible institution is still exacting its price
Wine Industry Confirms Same Deflationary Trend in Energy (via Stephen N.)
How to Tell Someone’s Age When All You Know Is Her/His Name -- note how few names have both old and new cohorts...
The future is already here; it’s just unevenly spread. William Gibson
Thanks for reading--
charles |
|
|
|
|
|
