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amaston
Reviews
Poverty, Inc. (2014)
A refreshing perspective on how to manage poverty
I think the lessons described in this film of good intentions meeting disastrous consequences.
The analogy developed across the film isn't advocating to teach a man to fish, it's saying the village already has a fisherman, and shows what happens to his livelihood when an NGO starts giving the village free fish and the fisherman has to sell his boat to survive. And what happens to that village when the NGO stops giving away free fish, now that the fisherman is bankrupt?
The film also offers solutions. NGOs and other agencies should contract with local organizations wherever possible, and not have strings attached that benefit the donating country. Social entrepreneurs like TOMS should help communities by producing locally and not by dumping (which they acknowledge they have started to do). Foreign aid after disasters needs to end shortly after the situation is stabilized.
I recommend this film, and it's refreshing take on poverty applies just at much at home as it does abroad.
The Emperor's New Clothes (2015)
Brand has an infant's mind
Oh great, another celebrity walking around in $500 jeans talking about the ills of society and how bad poor people have it.
I find it ironic that Brand blames the free market system for making the poor, poorer and the rich, richer than how things used to be when meanwhile the markets have only grown less free and the social safety nets have only grown over the same period of time. But then again, he's a burn out that suffers from buying his own BS.
If we had Brand as our Dear Leader, he'd raise income taxes on the wealthy, property taxes, and raise minimum wage significantly. In turn, with everyone making more money and the prices of goods increasing dramatically, we'd see prices go up significantly on everything from rent to toilet paper and groceries. Essentially the poor would be back in the exact same place they were before, except it would be even harder to accumulate any wealth so we'd be completely dependent on the state. Brand the rescue would enact price ceilings on goods in response to the inflation and then we'd see shortages.
Worst of all, Brand would be all fired up about this from his multi- million dollar house and would call his producer friends so that they could make another worthless documentary exactly as this one with the exact same solution.
So don't listen to this infant, don't let him have an excuse to make another film full of advice worth far less than his jeans.