"The End of Poverty"

I just finished this book by Jeffrey Sachs. This book, along with the globalization book I just read and "Inside Job" (a documentary on the banking crisis which I just watched) have me pretty convinced that the liberlization of the economy which commenced with Reagan pretty much ruined the world. Never did like that guy.

Sachs says that with a few measures, we could end world poverty by 2025. Extreme poverty anyway, meaning people living on less than $1/day. I think he's a bit optimistic of the government. His plan requires the US, for instance, to up its foreign aid from like $2/person/year in Africa to $70/person/year from the rich world (whose GNP is largely composed of American dollars). Right now the US gives .15% or something in aid, and they need to increase it to .7 I think (sorry if that number's off, I'm going by memory here as I already turned in the library book).

Aid for third-world countries crashed after Reagan decided that the whole world, no matter their circumstances, could be made magically better if they only cut loose their economies and joined the global market. Easy to say for the UK. Not so easy to say for like Sudan.

His plan also requires a "differential diagnosis," or a economic development plan that is tailored to the unique factors that create poverty in every country, every village even. He calls for creating sustainable villages rather than sustaining villages with aid (ex. training doctors rather than providing perishable medical supplies).

I really enjoyed the book, and I learned a lot about the unique economies of countries like China, India, Poland, etc., but it's frustrating to read a book about reforms that I don't really have control over. Sachs' plan may well work, but it has to be enacted on a policy level, and I just don't have much control over national policy or foreign debt cancellation.

It was nice to believe, though, that the end of poverty is possible. I really am an optimistic person, but I see the way people treat each other, and I'm just not sure. The book made me hopeful. May the IMF quit being idiots and listen more to Jeffrey Sachs.