jeffrey sachs and his pipe dream

Jeffrey Sachs and his pipe dream

Grandpa asked me to tell him what I thought of this article by Jeffrey

D. Sachs, "Rapid Victories Against Extreme Poverty". Dr. Sachs, I used

to think that you were really smart and that we just disagreed. Now, I

think that you need to revisit some of the basic texts of economics

and development theory. Not to mention come visit me in South America.

His definition of poverty is ok, even if his "basic needs" are a bit

broad to be basic. I'm not sure that people "need" telecommunications.

However, his proposed solution doesn't at all address what created the

situation of poverty in the first place, if not corruption,

mismanagement, and weak institutions. It almost seems as if he is

saying that poverty is its own cause, which is a tautology. Not to

mention, if corruption, mismanagement, and weak institutions are not a

problem, what does he think is going to happen to the schools and

clinics and roads that are built under his plan? That they are just

going to spontaneously rejuvenate themselves? That individuals will

suddenly buck the trend of the problem of the commons that has existed

since time untold and take care of them in some sort of hokey

cooperative utopia? I thought this guy was an economist!

Furthermore, where is the magic market that will absorb, without

displacement of market share, distortions, and price issues, all of

this suddenly increased agricultural production? What about the

environmental effects of increased fertilizer use and run-off? What is

the incentive for farmers to re-invest in their farms if they are

being subsidized? I thought that this guy was an economist!

Basically, his whole idea is going right back to the charity of early

"development" efforts, and there is no reason to believe that the

results will be any different. Decaying clinics, schools with no

teachers (the corrupt governments aren't paying them enough to be

there now, does he think that building a new school will change

that?), rusting farm equipment in fields, empty irrigation trenches,

etc. If I didn't know that he has traveled extensively in the

developing world, I'd think he'd never been here before.

Finally, it is not the responsibility of the developed world taxpayers

to relieve the governance burden from corrupt, mismanaged, and weak

developing country governments. It is their responsibility to govern.

We can provide services to help them do that better, but no way do we

take this on ourselves. Then we will be doing it into eternity, while

the leaders of these countries while away their time on the beach or