Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Pluto]

In 1970, many Africans had become free people, and there was new hope for a freer more prosperous future away from European ownership. To be sure, Africa wasn�t as advanced as Western Europe or North America, but the poverty rate stood at just 10%. It is that fact, that Africa was relatively poor compared to Europe or NA that led to Western nations to give aid to African nations. Since 1970, a little more than US$1 Trillion has been donated. Most of this aid has been transferred from Western governments to African regimes via the IMF or the World Bank. Has any of this aid helped? Well, no. Nowadays, almost 70% of Africans suffer abject poverty, widespread pestilence and disease (ie. HIV/AIDS and Malaria), bleak economic growth and live under the World�s most tyrannical regimes. 50% of the World�s poor live in Sub-Saharan Africa where average GDP is one dollar per day. Since 1980, many of the World�s poor have been lifted out of abject poverty while 50% more Africans have found themselves living in abject poverty. I could go on, but there are so many things wrong on so many levels. The long and the short of it are that the money that Western donors have gone to governments. This makes governments accountable to the IMF or the World Bank as opposed to their own people for tax collections.

The best way to stop all of this nonsense is to stop donating, and start trusting in free peoples, free enterprise and free markets. This is one regard in which the West can learn a lot from China. Chinese institutions, both public and private, have done more to develop Africa in the past few years than any other country on Earth. Thousands of miles of pipelines, energy grids, roads and other critical infrastructure have mostly been funded via Chinese FDI. To be sure, the Chinese are following their self interests in pursuing what is underneath Africa�s soil (ie. Oil, gold, copper, etc.), but to say that the Chinese aren�t doing more to pulling many Africans out of poverty is just farcical. Best to follow the Chinese example, get entrepreneurs and private charities into Africa, and get governments out.

Source: Dambisa Moyo is the author of Dead Aid She can be seen here in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

[soviet_man]

[Rusty Shackleford]

[RufusW]

Other than FDI, which is good for large-scale projects; microfinance is probably the best method for development and should be utilized far more.

[Hater Depot]

[Fox]

[Rusty Shackleford]

[

[Pluto]

This:

[mises]

I am hugely skeptical about micro finance. I've seen research that isn't very pretty. Paying the visa with the mastercard after the principle is blown. There have been a few success stories.

Anyways, about the OP. She gives a great interview. Here are two:

http://www.onpointradio.org/2009/04/is-aid-good-for-africa

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101986498

[Rusty Shackleford]

[mises]

Planned obsolescence is annoying. I bought an ipod and when it died two years later I bought a replacement battery and ruined it beyond repair during the install. My solution? I don't buy products that I know are designed to fail within a time line that I believe is unreasonable.

However, planned obsolescence in most (or almost all) cases isn't really market failure nor a problem for regulatory institutions.

Kinda related:

The Japanese automakers build cars that last longer not because they are better at it, or they are just nice and kind people, but because they do not have a network of repair outlets as deep as the Big 3. This means less revenue for Honda shops and more for local, non-affiliated shops. If Honda could profit from having more repairs, as the Big 3 could, they would build that into their business models.

[Rusty Shackleford]

Mises. Do iPods really have "planned obsolescence" built in? (I'm quite happy to have learned something new today! I knew firms did this but had no idea it had a name.) Granted Apple products are difficult to service for the average person, but battery technology is actually quite bad. You will notice that other types eg cell phone, mp3 and even regular batteries are really quite poor.

[Kuros]

Pluto seems to be right about China. Although they've some shady connections with Zimbabwe and Sudan, they scaled back involvement with the latter during the Olympics, and they've been pumping money throughout the rest of East Africa.

[mises]

[Fox]