Poverty, Inc. by filmmaker Michael Matheson Miller was truly eye-opening. Growing up in the affluence of America has influenced my view of poverty around the world. I have always thought that the U.S. and other countries were doing good when they sent over free things. I assumed that they could not provide for themselves, so of course we should do what we can with the excess we have. While that is a good thought, after watching this film, it makes sense as to how this could have a truly devastating effect long term.
How could our help end up hurting these countries?
That was my question when I first started watching. However, the answer is clear. The documentary starts with talking about how we destroy the local market because we have high tariffs for imported goods so that they cannot give us goods. But then we go and produce excess to give back to them, and we ruin their economy. When a country becomes dependent on handouts by another country, it leads to a people that are lazy. Not only that, but it crushes the local economy inside that country. If first world countries are constantly giving free things, then how are local farmers, cobblers, etc. supposed to make money? That's right, they can't. They are forced into something else, and are not able to support their family and grow the economy like they were able to before.
Should we just stop helping then?
The next question, obviously, is that if we are only crippling those countries we intend to help, then should we just stop trying to help altogether? Well, not exactly. Towards the end of the documentary, it offers a potential solution. As opposed to simply excluding these countries from world trade with high tariffs and unfair trading laws, we need to partner with them. The documentary featured a story of a family that was looking to adopt from Haiti and they were asked if they would like to meet the mother of the boy they were going to adopt. They were shocked, thinking, "wait, didn't his mother die/abandon him?" The fact is, "80% of Haitian orphans are just poverty orphans" (Poverty, Inc min 58). Therefore, when an orphanage opens up, and they take care of the kid when the parent does not have enough money to do so, they give up their kid for adoption. This family realizes, however, that instead of just doing this, they should just give the families an opportunity to make money so that they can afford to take care of their child. It is the same thing with impoverished nations. Giving them outlets to work, to earn money, to be proud of what they have accomplished; rather than just giving sporadically and producing reliance and a lack of ability to work. The current system leads to learned helplessness, and we wonder why it does not work.
Source:
Poverty, Inc, Michael Matheson Miller, https://www.povertyinc.org
