People and organizations seek to serve the material poor out of a good heart. However, we must be aware that good intentions are not enough. We must think through the probable results of our charitable actions and seek to avoid damaging, unintended consequences.
Population and Poverty: The Fear of Overpopulation The fear of overpopulation of the earth has a long history. English cleric Thomas Malthus first articulated the mathematical calculation that seemed to provide some scientific confirmation of people’s intuitive sense that population growth could not continue indefinitely without dire consequence. In Malthus’s formula, the growth of human … Continued
Malaria is a disease with enormous human cost: 2.7 million people die from the disease each year in developing nations, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa.
The "zero-sum game" is a Game Theory illustration of instances in which one player’s win necessitates the other player's loss; in other words, there is no such thing as a win-win scenario where both players benefit.
The term foreign aid may refer to any form of assistance that crosses national boundaries. In many policy discussions, including the following exposition, the term refers more specifically to government-to-government transfers of funds to developing nations.
In the context of political economy, corruption refers to an illegal transaction that harms the group the agent is obliged to serve through the transaction.
Charitable giving is the voluntary, benevolent giving of goods, services or money toward perceived or real needs, needs that may or may not be addressable through business and market activity.
Agricultural subsidies and tariffs have caused damage to global trade and have subsequently undermined wide-spread wealth creation for centuries.
Cash transfers are a simple idea. Instead of going through the time-consuming, administratively-involved, and costly processes associated with traditional aid distribution, why not simply give money directly to people in poverty?
A Universal Basic Income (UBI) would provide every citizen with a minimum income from the government. Proponents of a UBI argue that such a policy would secure human flourishing by protecting people from economic turmoil and job losses brought on by technological advances.