Idle dreamer
The wishbone never could replace the backbone.
Moderator, Treatment Free Beekeepers group on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/treatmentfreebeekeepers/
You can see with only one eye open, but you'll probably run into things and stub your toe. The big picture matters.
Michael Cox wrote:This is a fascinating and complex topic - and one best approached by using rigorous scientific methods than by throwing around anecdotes. The best treatment of it that I have seen is in the EXCELLENT book "Poor Economics", which investigates the economics of poverty. The authors look into all aspects of it, with the primary objective being to find the economic and social tools that can help start people on the rise out of poverty.
They do discuss some specific issues where charity has negative consequences. One example that stuck in my head was that of bed nets treated with DDT for the prevention of malaria. These are frequently offered by NGOs for free or at discounted rates. They described a situation where an NGO gave away bed nets in an area that had previously been served by a local entrepreneur. He was put out of business by the supply of free bed nets. When the NGO withdrew their supply 2 years later there was no local market to fill the gap. But worse than that, they had adjusted the expectations of the local population that these should be free and they were more reluctant to buy them after the exercise than they had been before.
The primary lesson from the book is that the world is a very complex place, and unintended consequences are very common. The best we can hope is to use rigorously designed studies to determine which interventions actually work, and then capitalise on those lessons. And we must stop using anecdotes to design policy.
You can see with only one eye open, but you'll probably run into things and stub your toe. The big picture matters.
William Bronson wrote:This isn't private charity, but food stamps cause unintended consequences.
It's not the steak or shrimp bought with food stamps that cause the most misery.
It's the soda,candy,sugar cereal and chips.
Better to allow prepared hot food to be purchased than that crap.
Free school breakfast/lunch presents a similar problem, with sugar laden cereal bars and good awful processed lunches,shipped in ,not cooked on site.
Even pantries give out a lot of past date baked goods, while fruit and veg rots on their shelves, unwanted by people who generally don't know how to cook,and are unused to any food that hasn't been processed to death.
Poor people in the USA are as often malnurished as they are undernurished.
It makes me wonder if the governments food subsidy programs, which favor corn,wheat and soy,are the worst charity of all.
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Moderator, Treatment Free Beekeepers group on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/treatmentfreebeekeepers/
Michael Cox wrote:The take away from that study was that sometimes the simplest interventions - a gift of cash - can have profound impacts. But also that when we "give" but retain control of what can be done with that gift, for example by imposing restrictions that suit our personal world view, we actually get in the way of what can be achieved, and also make the process less efficient and more expensive to administer.
A cash gift of $100 is incredibly simple - someone turns up once and hands over an envelope. If you put conditions on how they spend it, it becomes incredibly difficult. Do you send someone out once a month to check up on them? Do you ask for receipts? Do you invoice them if they spend it on something you consider "inappropriate"?
You can see with only one eye open, but you'll probably run into things and stub your toe. The big picture matters.
William Bronson wrote:
It makes me wonder if the governments food subsidy programs, which favor corn,wheat and soy, are the worst charity of all.
William Bronson wrote:
Even pantries give out a lot of past date baked goods, while fruit and veg rots on their shelves, unwanted by people who generally don't know how to cook,and are unused to any food that hasn't been processed to death.
Poor people in the USA are as often malnurished as they are undernurished.
Pecan Media: food forestry and forest garden ebooks
Now available: The Native Persimmon (centennial edition)
We live on Blue Planet that circles a ball of fire. Our Planet is circled by a Golden Moon that moves its oceans. Now tell me that you don’t believe in miracles....Unknown
I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay, I sleep all night and work all day. Tiny lumberjack ad:
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