"Give" until they're rich

Hmmm. Certain sectors have noted a blogging deficiency in these quarters. Almost as tho I have acquired a life. Fear not. I have been lollygagging about Hawaii and the hinterland of Southern California for nigh onto two weeks, at times Internet Impaired, and am now in a position to rectify said perceived deficiency. Herewith:

Claudia Rosett in the March 27 Opinion Journal , re: Jeffrey Sachs' book "The End of Poverty" with his prescription for ending poverty around the word (excerpted in Time Mag last week, I think it was):

"What stymies the people in poor countries, as a rule, is not a lack of aid. It is forms of government, often corrupt and tyrannical, that do not allow people to exercise free choice under fair law.

Unfortunately, aid plans have a long history of reinforcing precisely the lousy governmental varieties that keep people poor. While Mr. Sachs punctuates his book with comments to that effect, he goes right on, undeterred, spelling out his plan. He calculates that in Africa, whatever the failures of aid to date, $30 billion a year would take care of the problem. "I have identified the specific investments that are needed," writes Mr. Sachs. For him, the only remaining question is, "Will the world act?"

The world probably will not act, at least not in the way Mr. Sachs has in mind--and a good thing, too."

Well, I read the Time Mag excerpt, and if it is representative of the whole book, I agree with her critique. The guy can think of nothing but how to throw away money. "Throw away" not because his assertions that such things as clean water are important but because without the long term policy changes in impoverished countries needed to allow wealth creation, most of the money will be wasted, if not actually siphoned into Swiss and Cayman Island bank accounts of the politically powerful.

Back in the good old days, such places as Switzerland functioned to protect ppls' wealth from predatory governments. Lately I have been struck by the idea that they now function to protect the personal wealth of dictators, mass murderers (if the two categories can be properly divided), and all-round International Filth from justice.

Until the governments of the impoverished nations are changed (and it will likely take a change in national ethos in many such countries) we can throw all the money we want to at ameliorating our feelings of guilt (however deserved or simply neurotic) and all we will be doing is throwing it away. We are better off encouraging the overthrow of the bad guys. Or minding our own business and letting the miserable ppl of the world move to better places, leaving their oppressors behind.