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Not to be a downer but an academic study found this to have limited effect. I heard about it on freakonomics so can't vouch for how biased it was. Just an inter
by tgandrews 13y ago
Not to be a downer but an academic study found this to have limited effect. I heard about it on freakonomics so can't vouch for how biased it was. Just an interesting point against the economist article. http://freakonomics.com/2013/09/26/would-a-big-bucket-of-cash-really-change-your-life-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/ http://freakonomics.com/2013/09/26/would-a-big-bucket-of-cas...
- DanBC 13y agoThe Economist article talks about someone in Kenya being given $1000USD. That's about 84800KSH. Minimum wage for Kenya varies, but 4855KSH ($57USD) per month is what a general laborer gets.[1] That person is getting very roughly 17 months income. That's very different to "winning the lottery". But perhaps this man is one of the 50% of Kenyans living below the poverty line.[2] ($2USD per day) So, if he gets $1.25USD per day a $1000USD lump sum would be a bit more than 2 years income. Microfinance is not the wonder that people once thought it was[3], but giving money to people directly seems to work quite well. [1] http://www.wageindicator.org/main/salary/minimum-wage/kenya http://www.wageindicator.org/main/salary/minimum-wage/kenya http://www.ruralpovertyportal.org/country/home/tags/kenya http://www.ruralpovertyportal.org/country/home/tags/kenya [2] http://c2050922.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/images/172/original/Kenya%20Statistics.pdf?1286826616 http://c2050922.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/images/172... [3] http://www.irinnews.org/report/95067/development-microfinance-possibilities-and-limitations http://www.irinnews.org/report/95067/development-microfinanc...