Humility and realism throw cold water on "End Poverty Now" posturing in Michael Clemens' Foreign Affairs review-essay on Paul Collier's book The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It. "The bottom billion" are people who are not only destitute themselves, but trapped in no-growth countries that -- unlike, say, India or Brazil -- offer no way out of poverty. Clemens is a committed development professional who's been there, done that, and knows whereof he speaks in painful, particular detail. This is just his conclusion:
Helping the bottom billion will be a very slow job for generations, not the product of media- or summit-friendly plans to end poverty in ten or 20 years. It will require long-term, opportunistic, and humble engagement, much of it through public action -- built on a willingness to let ineffective interventions die and on a sophisticated appreciation of the stupendous complexity of functioning economies. The grievous truth is that although a range of public actions can and should help many people, most of the bottom billion will not -- and cannot -- be freed from poverty in our lifetimes.
It's worth seeing how he gets there. Read it and reel.
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