- 1.5 Billion people live on less that $1 a day.
- 2 Billion people live on less that $2 a day.
- The Haves are increasing arithmetically.
- The Have-nots are increasing geometrically
- The multitude may oppress the few, but the few may not oppress the multitude. Not for very long, anyway.
To understand helping people in emerging nations, we must
deal up front with two impediments.
1st: Those who want
to exploit people in emerging nations.
2nd: Those who believe they are helping people in emerging
nations.
To have a clear picture, we need an economics lesson. By Metaphor.
I have but two skills: an analytical mind, and the ability
to speak in metaphors. Here we go:
The biggest problem is the word wealth.
Some want to promise riches. Riches that never arrive.
Others define wealth a language for helping the rich get
richer, but in fact, only keep poor people shacked to poverty by keeping poor people
shackled to poverty programmes.
According to The Random House Dictionary, you can define
wealth two ways.
A great quantity of money or property of value.
All goods that have monetary or exchange value.
To understand helping people in Emerging Nations, it is the
second definition that will help us to better understand how to help people in
Emerging Nations.
From The Definitions of Slim Fairview:
- Money: what you make.
- Wealth: what you have.
To a youngster who wants to mow lawns for pocket money:
- Money: what people will pay him to mow their lawns.
- Wealth: A lawn mower.
- Wealth: all goods having monetary or exchange value.
Here is the metaphor to explain the economics lesson.
NB From the Bauhaus:
Form follows function.
CAVEAT!
This is an economics lesson.
Focus on the Economics ONLY!
Back in the day, a kid with a lawn mower could earn money
mowing lawns.
With two lawn movers, he can
- Make money mowing lawns with lawn mover #1
- Make money renting lawn mower #2 to another kid to mow lawns.
- Hire another kid to 2work for him mowing lawns with lawn mower #2.
The question is, How much money can the first kid save up to
buy the second lawn mower?
This leads us to a question of skill.
With mechanical ability, Kid #1 can buy a broken lawn mower,
repair it, and put it into service.
Ultimately, the 2nd kid gets paid for what he
does.
The 1st kid gets paid for what he knows.
As demand for services rise, it will become necessary to buy
more lawn mowers and to hire more kids to mow lawns.
If demand rises faster than growth, the kid will lose market
share and revenue.
If the business grows faster than demand, money will be tied
up in idle (unused) lawn mowers. This will reduce the return-on-investment.
Then there is Time Utility.
A lawn mower in May is worth more than a lawn mower in
November.
Also, there are Threats.
Another kid with a lawn mower can penetrate the market and
steal customers.
Two or three employees can pool their resources, quit and go
into competition.
However, There are also Opportunities. These are called Mid-term and Long-term
Strategic Planing.
The1st kid can buy one riding mower instead of 3 push mowers
and big for bigger and more lucrative jobs.
The 1st kid, or his competitor can
- Invest in rakes for when the leaves start to fall.
- Invest in snow shovels for when the snow starts to fall.
- Invest in snow blowers. (Op. cit. riding mowers.)
- Invest in lawn mowers for when the grass starts to grow. (Op. cit. Time Utility.)
Now, having established the premise:
People in Emerging Nations neither need nor want
charity. They need and want capital
investment.
From the Economics of Slim Fairview:
Capital Investment = Economic Development + Growth.
NB
And when I say Capital
Investment, I do not mean people from Industrialised Nations building lawn
mower factories in Emerging Nations so poor people can earn low wages making
cheap lawn mowers for people living in Industrialised Nations.
To elevate people in Emerging Nations from poverty, embrace
the paradigm that has been used successfully in the past in:
- China
- Post War Germany
- Post War Japan
- Put people to work.
Now, here is a thought question:
- Your kid gets a job with a landscaper.
- You hire the landscaper to mow you lawn.
- The landscaper sends your kid to mow your lawn
- The landscaper pays your kid less money than you pay to the landscaper.
Does that make sense?
No…unless…you can’t afford to buy a lawn mower.
You have money to pay a landscaper, but you do not have
wealth—a lawn mower.
To focus on the problem in Emerging Nations, ask yourself,
How did the fist kid get the first lawn mower in the first place?
This is the predicament of the poor in Emerging Nations that
is sustained with each new and failed initiative to help the world’s poor. People cannot each symbolic gesture.
- Industrialised Nations
- Know what to do
- Know how to do it.
- Know where to do it
- Know when to do it (Now!)
- Industrialised Nations have no excuse to fail to do it.
- Industrialised Nations have No Excuse to Fail.
Warmest regards,
Slim.
Copyright © 2014 Bob Asken as Slim Fairview
All rights reserved.
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