Image via WikipediaThere are natural lakes, and there are man made lakes. Well, all poverty is man made. Poverty does not have to exist. I once heard a billionaire say there is enough marble just in West Virginia to build a mansion for every family on earth, but we have not reached that organization level yet as humanity. We keep getting in each other's way.
My industry - microfinance - has been a failure to date. Every year that the industry has existed, the number of poor people on the planet has gone up. That is failure.
Information poverty leads to real poverty. That is why the major proliferation of mobile phones across the world is great news for those offended by poverty.
Poverty elimination has to be a goal. People don't have to keep living on a dollar a day. And the elimination has to happen fast. The pace has to be revolutionary.
There are many, many actors in the game. There are governments, NGOs, there is the small player, the UN. There are businesses. There is the vast informal economy in many poor countries.
Image via WikipediaMy weapon of choice is a for profit, high tech microfinance startup.
There is a Haiti earthquake going on every single day in the Global South and the world at large needs to know. When people know, they do act.
I intend to make an intensive use of social media.
My outfit is going to be so high tech, we are going to act like we are in the data collection business. We will use data visualizations to keep the blood flowing through our organization.
I believe in democracy. I believe in the market. I am offended by poverty.
Poverty is not an abstract concept to me. People living on a dollar a day had nicknames for me when I was growig up. That puts me at a huge advantage with my business, in my industry.
Poverty alleviation has to be large scale. Scaling is key. If you do amazing work, but only impact 100 families, I am not going to get excited. There has to be some sense of demand and supply. How big is the problem? How fast is it growing? How big is the solution being offered? Is it too small?
Poverty in the world has been like a forest fire that has grown bigger every passing year. That can not be allowed to stand.
People talk about singularity. My singularity is that point in time when there is no longer poverty in the world. It is a very achievable goal. It can be done in a few swift decades.
Identify poverty. Eliminate poverty. Fast. The pace has to be revolutionary.
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