Josh Duncan
EEE-2083
13 November 2022
Poverty Inc. Discussion paper
This documentary was very eye opening to consumers and entrepreneurs. It goes into detail about how international aid has hurt Hatti and other African countries. The aid seems that it is the nice thing to do because you are helping them out but after looking closer in these countries it is actually destroying them. Entrepreneurs and business owners are going out of business because of all the international aid being giving out making people rely on the free stuff and not support local business and entrepreneurs. I found it very interesting because you quite literally don’t know what to do because you want to help them by giving them the items and aid, but you also don’t like to see people losing their jobs because of this and creating a rundown economy because nobody wants to buy anything. It is also interesting how entrepreneurs could play a significant role in solving this issue of creating value back into these countries by creating opportunities and purposing regulations on the governments. This documentary also talks about how as an entrepreneur you can help them by creating jobs for them, reversing them back to valuing items and supporting local businesses and their economy.
How this movie deals with entrepreneurship are the different aspect of entrepreneurship in a way of things that could affect you. The thing that hurt entrepreneurs in poverty Inc. was all the free international aid they are constantly giving. The solar power company was a good example they gave in they sold 5 lights all year because the NGOS (Nonprofit Organizations) were giving out his same product and putting a damper on him. It not only puts handcuffs on entrepreneurs it also does to the economy because people value things less when you get it free and you are exchanging good to create even trade circle going around, somebody is always going to get screwed in this market and it would be the entrepreneur or business owner because they wouldn’t be making any profit. This could go as “the unseen” as talked about in the book because most people think that all these international aids going to these countries in poverty are helping them and which they are, but they are also hurting from the entrepreneurial side of it. This is causing a lot of problems between entrepreneurs and society because it is a battle you can’t beat. One of the ways you could attempt to beat it is to add regulations to these international aids coming in another way is to just stop giving them aid and promote more entrepreneurs to start things here and build business for their people to work in to grow their economy and promote the supporting entrepreneurs. This is the other aspect as entrepreneurs seek out and make and build factories and shops in these towns to change their thought process of everything is given to them. It would create value to them. It would be creative destruction because they’d be replacing the international aid with jobs. All these ways are different aspects entrepreneurship plays a role in this documentary about these countries.
