Reviewed December 17, 2006.
The Penguin Press, New York, 2005.
396 pages.
Available at Sembach
Library
(MCN 339.409 SAC).
This book is
not at all light
reading, but the subject matter is tremendously important.
The author seriously presents a way that we
can eliminate the worst kinds of poverty which leave the people of
entire
nations destitute. He makes a strong
case that working on this problem will solve many other problems as
well.
No, he’s not
trying to bring
in the Millennium or something like that. He
simply shows how we can help people who have reached
the level of
desperation—and thus improve our own stability far more effectively
than going
to war.
Jeffrey Sachs
introduces the
book with the words: “This book is about
ending poverty in our time. It is not a
forecast. I am not predicting what will
happen, only explaining what can happen. Currently,
more than eight million people around the world
die each year
because they are too poor to stay alive. Our
generation can choose to end that extreme poverty by
the year 2025.”
He tells us
that the U.S.
spends
$450 billion on the military, and $15 billion per year on the plight of
the
poor. “That $15 billion represents a
tiny percentage of U.S.
income, just 15 cents on every $100 of U.S. gross national
product, or
GNP. The share of U.S. GNP devoted to
helping the poor has declined for decades, and is a tiny fraction of
what the United
States
has repeatedly promised, and failed, to give. It
is also much less than the United States
should give, both to
solve the crisis of extreme
poverty and thereby to provide for U.S. national security. This book, then, is about making the right
choices—choices
that can lead to a much safer world based on true reverence and respect
for
human life.”
Jeffrey Sachs
doesn’t rely on
rhetoric to make his points. The nearly
400 pages that follow present facts and figures, show historic trends,
and make
a strong case for methods that can actually reduce poverty. He claims his book will “help to show the way
toward the path of peace and prosperity, based on a detailed
understanding of
how the world economy has gotten to where it is today, and how our
generation
could mobilize our capacities in the coming twenty years to eliminate
the
extreme poverty that remains.”
His
credentials are
impressive, and so is the scope of his information.
He analyzes modern economic growth and shows
what factors helped make the prosperous countries prosperous, and why
some
countries, on the other hand, fail to thrive. He
says that economists should be like medical doctors,
not rushing to a
simple diagnosis. Like the human body,
economies are complex systems. He says
there a six areas an economist wanting to help should look at: the extent of extreme poverty, the economic
policy framework of the country, the fiscal framework of the country,
physical
geography and human ecology, patterns of governance, and cultural
barriers to
economic development.
Did I mention
that this is an
academic and scholarly book? The author
doesn’t talk down to his readers, but presents the issue in all of its
complexity.
Interestingly,
he has developed
his principles from actual experience. In
1985, he flew to Bolivia,
to help with their out-of-control inflation. He
found that the theoretical economics he had learned
didn’t adequately
deal with the situation, and learned much about “clinical economics.” In 1989, he visited Poland
and
helped develop a plan to establish a market economy.
Later, when Russia got into economic
trouble,
he helped them to stabilize the ruble. He
also gives information about the economic growth of China and India.
He goes on to
discuss
specific recommendations for ending poverty and helping poor countries
achieve
economic growth. He looks on the ground,
as well as at the big picture. For
example,
poor economies need agricultural inputs, investments in basic health,
investments
in education, power, transport and communications services, and safe
drinking
water and sanitation. Some of these
basic things could be provided relatively cheaply—and without them,
growth is
almost impossible.
He has a
chapter titled, “Can
the Rich Afford to Help the Poor?” In
it, he says, “All of the incessant debate about development assistance,
and
whether the rich are doing enough to help the poor, actually concerns
less than
1 percent of rich-world income. The
effort required of the rich is indeed so slight that to do less is to
announce
brazenly to a large part of the world, ‘You count for nothing.’ We should not be surprised, then, if in later
years the rich reap the whirlwind of that heartless response.”
Then he gives
five reasons why
“the level of required effort is, in truth, so modest:
“First, the
numbers of
extreme poor have declined to a relatively small proportion of the
world’s
population….”
“Second, the
goal is to end extreme
poverty, not to end all poverty, and still less to equalize world
incomes or to close the gap between the rich and the poor.
This may eventually happen, but if so, the
poor will have to get rich on their own effort. The
rich can help most by giving the extreme poor some
assistance to
extricate themselves from the poverty trap that now ensnares them.”
“Third,
success in ending the
poverty trap will be much easier than it appears. For
too long, too much economic thinking has
been directed at the wrong question—how to make the poor countries into
textbook
models of good governance or efficient market economies.
Too little has been done to identify the
specific, proven low-cost interventions that can make a difference in
living
standards and economic growth. When we
get practical, and speak of investments in specific areas—roads, power,
transport, soils, water and sanitation, disease control—the task is
suddenly a
lot less daunting.
“Fourth, the
rich world today
is so vastly rich. An effort to end
extreme poverty that would have seemed out of reach even a generation
or two
ago is now well within reach because the costs are now such a small
fraction of
the vastly expanded income of the rich world.”
“Fifth, our
tools are more
powerful than ever. Mobile phones and
the Internet are ending the information famine of rural areas in Asia
and Africa. Improved
logistics systems now enable global industries to operate profitably in
far-flung regions. Modern agronomic
practices, including improved seed breeding, agrobiotechnology, and
science-based management of soil nutrients, are restoring lands that
were long
degraded or opening new lands that were previously considered
infertile.”
He gets into
specific details
about how much money is needed in different areas to give countries the
boost
up that they need. He also confronts
myths about foreign aid. For example, to
those who say that money to Africa is money down the drain, he says,
“It is no
surprise that there is so little to show for the aid to Africa, because
there
has in fact been so little aid to Africa!”
We also tend
to think that
the U.S.
is giving more aid than it is. “Of the
limited aid that the United States
gives, a large proportion of it goes to pay for U.S.
experts (technical assistance)
or for emergency relief and food grains rather than for long-term
investments
in infrastructure or education or health. The
aid, in other words, is not only very small compared
to U.S. GNP and
foreign needs, but is given in a form that offers little long-term help. The pattern is not confined to the current
Bush
administration. It has been a feature of U.S.
aid policy for decades.”
Another thing
I didn’t
realize is that the U.S.
has made many commitments that it simply doesn’t keep.
“American political leaders and the broad
public rarely recognize that the U.S. government has repeatedly made
international commitments to do much more than the United States is
doing, and
even less do they realize that the lack of follow-through carries an
enormous
foreign policy cost.” He gives several
examples of specific agreements which we have signed but not kept.
He concludes
the book with
specific steps we can take toward the goal of ending extreme poverty by
the
year 2025.
“Let the
future say of our
generation that we sent forth mighty currents of hope, and that we
worked
together to heal the world.”
Copyright © 2006 Sondra Eklund. All
rights reserved.
-top of page-
Book Reviews by Sondra Eklund
