Jediah Duncan
Econ 101
We Have Been Fooled
For years our parents and even us as adults had the mindset that donating money, clothes, and food products was the way to eradicate poverty in underdeveloped countries. This has been proven to be the wrong approach. Even though our intentions are good, this sort of giving hinders a countries growth and prevents them from escaping poverty. We have created a vicious cycle by doing this because governments and their people continuously sit and wait for donations instead of finding ways to advance and become self-sufficient.
We often use impoverished countries as our dumping ground for unwanted goods. By doing this, we directly reduce jobs and stifle entrepreneurship; therefore, nothing improves, and poverty continues. Entrepreneurs are the backbone of many developed countries because they boost economic growth by introducing new technologies, creating competition, providing jobs, and raising productivity. When handouts are continuously given to these countries, people become less incentivized, and local demand decrease or completely goes away. Without domestic growth and innovations provided by entrepreneurs, a country will not grow, and its dependency will only increase.
Donations from a charity is a band-aid that hides the real issues. Instead of casting a shadow over the real problems, charities should find a way to promote self-sufficiency. Many individuals in the East African government feel that donations undermine their textile industry's growth. Countries are trying to become self-reliant by producing their own products, but the U.S continues to put them at a disadvantage by flooding their market with donations. To stop this practice, we should listen to the people and stop donating to these organizations that turn around and sell the products to buyers in developed countries. Aid only helps the rich get richer.
Work Cited
M. (2017, December 7). The Harm of Charity & Donations: Money Doesn't Fix Every Problem | So you want to save the world. So You Want to Save the World. https://wordpress.lehigh.edu/anth090/2017/12/07/the-harm-of-charity-donations-money-doesnt-fix-every-problem/
I back this 100% because half of the battle with poverty is the way that we think about it. We can give clothes money or whatever but the problem still exists because there is no long term solution being put into play which goes back to the way we think. While some countries dont have the liberties that we do to speak freely there are those who stand out by the way they think. You cannot growing without putting on your thinking cap so the fact that we've blindly done it for years is baffling to me.