Book Review – Poor Economics: A radical rethinking of the way to fight global poverty

At an early age, authors Abhijit and Esther knew already that poverty existed. Through stories and observation, they were aware about the situation yet these did not satisfied them instead it motivated them to study, to enhance their knowledge and understand why poverty is such a problem that eliminating it is very difficult. The two authors have lots of question and because of that they made this book Poor Economic: A radical rethinking of the way to fight global poverty. Affected by outstanding generalization with the undisclosed frontline solutions about poverty and economics, the authors plead to several opinions and investigation to check on how poor managed to fight poverty. They were very concerned about the situation and wishes to let us see the other side of eliminating poverty. In addition to that, why does poor people cannot entirely get away with the problem despite the full efforts of the government of technologically advanced countries and private organization? There are a lot of solutions but it is not completely effective or not the answer that the people really need. Spanning five continents to find solution, authors engaged in research for 15 years to investigate about global poverty and illuminate many practical and cost effective ways on fighting it.

Through the years, I have always known that poverty is not a secret and is very rampant all over the world. Up to the present time and with everyone helping, why is it still there? Covering many valuable issues, this book is a great way to understand and discover the problems that many countries experience that may or may not contribute to poverty. This is a must-read book for all those people who cares about poverty, its nature and the people who is suffering from it. There are a lot of factors to consider when we tackle about poverty. A lot of issues that needs to be uncovered and solutions that needs to be evaluated over and over again to ensure its effectivity. In this book review, I am hoping that I can give justice to what these author is trying to say and giving my own opinion on the things they have discovered. My teacher told me that economics is a positive change in the fall of the production of goods and services of a certain country. I believe that it means equity, equality, in equilibrium with the supply and demand. Although there is a positive rise and fall in one country, it doesn’t mean that everyone or every nation are able to experience that. One country may have all the resources while others don’t have even just a clean water to drink. How can one place have an equilibrium when it actually has a little resources that affects the supply for every demand? It is in that manner that poverty really becomes a problem. The book helps us to understand why poor needs to borrow in order to save, although their children go to school they often do not learn, they miss out on free life-saving immunizations as well as paying drugs that they do not need and living on 99 cents a day. Battling poverty needs patience, careful thinking and willingness to learn. In the book, poverty trap was mentioned. As an example, poor countries are poor because they are hot, infertile, malaria infested and often land locked making it hard for the people to be productive without an initial large investment to help them deal with these endemic problems thus lack of modern technologies to help them progress. Coupled with having no possible resources for funding and payment for the ventures, these contribute in worsening poverty. I believe it is true because how can you start saving when you even can’t find a way to find income sources. A person can’t plant in an infertile soil so he has no products to sell and no investors that will finance a business providing loads of work for the local helping them earn a living. No access to good education is also stated in this book. In reality, education is a vital requirement find a decent job and make a living for yourself and for the family. As a solution foreign aid was mentioned to be the key. Billions of aid funds are being used to fight poverty, yet very small amount of work had been completed in analyzing their outcomes. Does foreign aid really help the poor countries? Is it enough? Based on what I have seen in the past years, there are people who really strive in working for a better life but the resources are really not enough making difficult for them to really earn enough to sustain their daily needs and wants. Indeed, some poor people managed to have their own stories of success in starting businesses but sadly it never went high enough to provide jobs to other individuals. Some have businesses but does not make much money. Although, they have monthly income but there are also a lot of deductions such as rent, daily expenses for food and other needs of the family which make it hard for them to really save. These results to unavailability of purchasing stocks for their store leading to bankruptcy. So a portion of the cause why businesses of the poor don’t grow is the nature of the businesses they operate and how they handle their profit. For the past years, foreign aid helped a lot of people all over the world making it one of the important solutions in fighting poverty. Undoubtedly, the most significant goal why nations seek out and agree to take foreign aid is for the purpose of economic progress. Developed Countries are considered to have a moral obligation to help and to assist the poorer countries to have a sustainable progressive lives. Other advantage of foreign aid is the improvement of health through delivery of health teachings, medicines and equipment. Receiving money for investment from developed countries supports to produce more jobs for the people, improved infrastructure, and stabilize their economy. Foreign aid has other advantages, such as fighting hunger, saving lives and providing civilians with shelters, clean water and medicine.

Although it is quite easy to believe that, some people argue the capability of foreign aid to really help combat the insufficiency in food, shelter, job and other resources needed by the poor individuals. Foreign aid’s usefulness is usually unassessed or even though it is being assessed, the approached may sometimes not convincing at all. Some also argue that it prevents people to search for their own solution. It makes sense that because of foreign aid, some people tend to wait for rich countries to help without even trying to search for possible solutions. It builds a culture of dependency that is keeping poverty difficult to fight and as a result poor remains poor. Aside from that, anti-aid people does not believe about the presence of poverty trap which I do not agree. Indeed, there is a presence of different views which I think both have point to share. An inconvenience of foreign aid is a higher percentage of dependency from the rich nations. The leaders of poor countries that accept aid gains reliance on a secured movement where they can support the people of their nation, they can also put money to other areas of the country which require funding. Foreign help can also be used to situate poor nations in political or economic pressure leading to being in debt with the supporting country. What could be really the effective way to abolish poverty? Moreover, solutions come with problem like for example, the reluctance to take risk and difficulty in trusting a possible investor, the poor wasted an opportunity. As mentioned in this book, poor nations usually have a very large family size. Absence of family planning and access to contraception methods in overpopulated families makes fighting poverty difficult. As a result, many experienced increase financial burden leading to low education rates and medical care. Politicians all over the world, private citizen, economists and every people who are trying to help, fail to recognize the exceptional reasons that lead to poverty for example attempting to erase it that usually attempts to eradicate it are usually foolish. Contrary to what we think, poor individuals need more of something than just food or money. In reality, the poor need programs that allows them to have a chance to succeed and fight poverty. To support that statement, I strongly agree to give these individuals the necessary opportunities, lots of them, yet they still need to work for it. In addition to that, I consider poverty a weakness but not a disability that will weaken your spirit in doing something for yourself. For example, if your land is infertile, sight other resources that you may use aside from that useless land. I strongly believe that all problems have their own sets of solutions, it’s a matter of discovery and resourcefulness. Besides many people are trying their best to help and give support to each individual who are suffering.

The book is designed to answer questions and help us understand why fighting poverty is not easy. It tackled a lot of solutions not being used or understand properly. Helping through funding is good as long as choosing the right kind of project will be prioritize. For example food for the indigent, pensions for the elderly and clinics for the diseased infected areas where everyone making sure figuring how best to run it. Deciding on helping the less fortunate when we can will make a difference, understanding that poverty is merely not just having money but not really having enough capability in realizing their full potential as a human being are just some realization I have learned from this book. I believe there are a lot of things to be considered and properly planned to ensure that what we think poor people needs is really what they are needing. Aside from that, both public and private actions should be done. In addition, proper planning for more accessible pathways should really be considered for every poverty causing factors. For education, the government should have encouragement programs to ensure parents compliance in making their children go to school. Roadways should be accessible and safe for everyone especially for the students. Free education is really a big help and should be instilled its importance to the poor. Funding health teachings through seminars, conference, and house to house visit about family planning is a must also. Everyone has the right to progress and poverty is just an obstacle. Although it is very hard but I believe everything has solution that still needs to be discovered in the near future that will really eradicate poverty completely. As long as everyone will help one another genuinely and the presence of the people who takes time to study and search for an answer, it will never be that far. In correlation, I believe that poor people in poor nations should also do something for themselves and merely not accept the fact that they are poor, they must not just wait for us to give something or help them to achieve something for themselves. They must acquire valuing their own strength and actions in order to realize that absence of action there is no development. Development needs skills and cleverness, when inhabitants feel safe and assured adequately, they will invest in their kids and let them leave home to get new occupations in the metropolis. These possibilities might be wrong but trying to do these will develop the lives of the deprived and merely not waiting for economic evolution which remains unbearable. To the degree that we distinguish how to get rid of poverty, there is no purpose to endure the waste of lives and ability that poverty passes with it. As this book presented, even though we have no charmed potions to wipe out poverty, we do recognize a number of things about how to develop the poor people’s lives.