Week-09 Reflection: Addressing Extreme Poverty

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This week we were required to watch the video "Poverty, Inc.". While I agreed for the most part holistically with the statements made in the movie, what resonated in me the most was the fact the companies such as Tom's are actually more harmful to those in impoverished countries than helpful. While this idea is ironic because their whole motto is based on the idea of buying a shoe to give a shoe, it is understandable to see that programs, such as this, in the end actually begin to flood the markets of the third world country. This can be seen in the film where they should countries that were continually given free clothes have them littering the street. No longer do people in the country feel the need to spend money on brand new clothing that is taking away money for their survival, they can now easily access free clothing at all times. While the people who are wanting the clothes are actually benefiting at the moment, in the long run, because we are now killing the possibility of business growth and economic growth, we are making them even more reliant on handouts. Instead of continually supplying countries with free goods and labor, we as a wealthier country should supply a mix of beginning goods for jump-starting the economy and businesses but then bring knowledge of saving, entrepreneurship, and a basic understanding of economic survival. The movie did an excellent job at showing healthy alternatives to just giving supplies to these impoverished countries. I really agreed with the part that showed a lady who opened a jewelry company and hired people from the areas to work in her show and even went as far as to show a woman that in order to improve her situation for better housing she only needs to make and sell a certain amount f jewelry that was not unreasonable at all. I think what would be the most beneficial for helping these people would be for the government to encourage people from wealthy countries, that are not large companies but instead new beginning entrepreneurs, to come to their areas to open small shops and higher locals. While they are there, they could slowly educate their works on what money is on the basis of connecting produce to amount and how much to make a certain amount. This would help the people in two major ways, they would be showing the locals about entrepreneurship and how to strengthen their countries economy but then also teaching these people who are less educated about how money works for survival and self-betterment. This movie did a very good job at showing a real-life example of "if you give a man a fish he will eat for a day, but if you teach a man to fish, he will eat for a lifetime." You can only give people so much for it to be helpful, but in the end, education and opportunity are the most influential things anyone can do to help.