The End of Poverty?

This film presents a challenge to the much-discussed ideas of Jeffrey Sachs. It shows that many of the causes of poverty are structural, not rooted in inadequacies of the individuals who live in poverty.

Unless we change the structures which create poverty, the efforts of many well-intended people to relieve the effects of poverty will not bring the end of poverty.

Henry George wrote about "the robber who takes all that is left" -- "Labor may be likened to a man who as he carries home his earnings is waylaid by a series of robbers. One demands this much, and another that much, but last of all stands one who demands all that is left, save just enough to enable the victim to maintain life and come forth next day to work. So long as this last robber remains, what will it benefit such a man to drive off any or all of the other robbers?" (Source: Protection or Free Trade)

Most of the efforts to reduce or end poverty do not attack the structures which create it; they are merely attempts to injure or remove one or another of those intermediate robbers: lack of drinking water; mosquitoes-borne illnesses; lack of educational opportunity; lack of capital, etc.

We ought to be seeking the source of the problem. This film is a start in that direction; it looks at structures. It is a good start. I encourage you to seek out the film's companion book Why Global Poverty?: A Companion Guide to the Film "The End of Poverty?" and two related websites: [...] and [...] for more that will illuminate the structural issues.

Thoreau, in Walden, wrote "There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root, and it may be that he who bestows the largest amount of time and money on the needy is doing the most by his mode of life to produce that misery which he strives in vain to relieve." This film will help people see part of the root of poverty. It isn't that the folks hacking at the branches are not good people; they are -- but they aren't going to end poverty. We HAVE to get to the root.

Where else might one look? Start with Henry George's landmark book on political economy (briefly, the science that deals with the distribution of wealth), Progress and Poverty - edited and abridged for modern readers by Bob Drake. It will give you fresh lenses through which to understand why we have poverty, and why most current efforts won't reduce it -- and it will give you hope and an understanding of how to end poverty, here or abroad.

"The End of Poverty? Think Again!" is beautifully photographed, and the speakers -- academics, activists and poor workers -- are eloquent. One comes away with a strong sense of the burden they carry. And the music and some scenes are haunting and memorable. See this film -- and share it with people who care about justice in the world.

Director Philippe Diaz's documentary THE END OF POVERTY? reminds us without poverty - that is, poor people the wealthy rob and enslave - those who enjoyed great affluence these past 500 years would have had to cut their own grass. In the fifteenth century, armies of the rich merely conquered foreign nations in order to plunder their resources and cart off slaves. But in modern times, the film explains, through organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank the moneyed interests pillage by indebting countries in Africa, South America, and anywhere else they can get away with it.

Hence, today twenty percent of the world's population uses eighty percent of resources. The people of nations on the short end of that equation see starvation and disease kill 20,000 of their children every day.

Maybe I missed the explanation for calling this documentary THE END OF POVERTY?, but it strikes me as someone from the World Bank recoiling at the thought of actually making sure every human being has food, water, health care, and a decent home. "The end of poverty? Then what would we do to remain wealthy?"

See THE END OF POVERTY?.

I knew some of this but for the most part was blown away. It is astounding. I will think about this movie and what I have learned from it for a LONG time. I will feel guilty for complaining about anything knowing my conveniences come at quite a price.

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