A Billion Bootstraps

A Billion Bootstraps: Microcredit, Barefoot Banking, and the Business Solution for Ending Poverty by Phil Smith and Eric Thurman

Actually, you know what? I’m pretty sick of charity - and if that sounds harsh, it isn’t: it’s just that you see so many people trying to do the right thing (and you keep trying to do the right thing) and very little seems to change, very little seems to get any better.

Why is this?

Phil Smith and Eric Thurman argue that the problem with charity is that most of it goes to ‘overheads’ - and that if the average CEO was to run his business the way the average charity is run (unsustainably, with no real accounting for results), then the average business would go pretty much broke in double quick time. But they offer an interesting solution - one which they say works, and which in effect recycles the money that goes into giving: it’s called microcredit. Making little loans to the poorest of the poor to help them over the hump can make the difference between begging and setting themselves up in business, they say. $20 or $50 may just be the amount someone needs to buy, say, materials to start up their basket weavery. And then when they repay the loan, that money goes to the next person, and so on… It’s a brilliant concept - and it’s working. Buy this book here