The End of Poverty

I recently read a book called "The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for our Time" by Jeffrey Sachs.

I was disappointed.

Even though it's not an exciting read for the non-economist I did enjoy his economic history lessons. But it left me disappointed in that his main focus was attacking poverty from a macro-economic angle. Not that this is wrong. But we have been at this top-down, macro, big money scale for a long time and it hasn't seemed to make much of a difference. Does it ever really trickle down to the poorest of the poor? Here are a couple of points that did resonate with me:

• "The problems in urban areas revolve around empowerment and finance."
• From 9/11/01 through 2005 ( a little over 4 years ) the United States has spent $450 billion on the military and $15 billion on the plight of the world's poor.
• "The key to ending poverty is to create a global network of connections that reach from impoverished communities to the very centers of world power and wealth and back again.

And here's an interesting statement from Colin Powell noted in the book: "The war on terror is wrapped up in the war on poverty."

I'm not saying that big aid from big NGO's (non-governmental organizations) and rich countries should be abandoned. Maybe it's time for that aid to come from the bottom-up. In the form of micro-loans: small loans to poor entrepreneurs.

What if we empower single mothers to earn money from a micro-enterprise and help them lift themselves out of extreme poverty. Can you imagine the pride and self-worth that comes from that? And guess who gets released from poverty with them? The kids. So one micro-loan to one woman ends up impacting an entire family. Maybe that's something of what Jesus had in mind when he announced he had come to give good news to the poor, release prisoners and set captives free. Free from the lie of poverty.