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By: Gavin Chait on 15 July 2007
If you would, for a moment, consider who I am and what I do for a living, instead of the fact that I'm a capitalist, you may realise that I am significantly more angry about poverty than you could ever comprehend.
Where we disagree is that you seem, somehow, to have arrived at the conclusion that poverty is the fault of the rich and that they got rich through some form of unfairness. Like rich people stole all the poor people's iPhones.
This article is about Zimbabwe. A few short years ago Zimbabwe was one of the wealthiest nations in Africa. Did they get poor because of rich Americans or government corruption and failed economic policies?
Rich people have no interest in poor people. Rich people make money by selling stuff; like microwave ovens, refrigerators, television sets, playstations and music videos. The destitute cannot afford these things.
The only people making money out of the poor are the morally bankrupt leaders who claim to represent them, and the NGOs who follow around picking up the pieces and blaming the rich.
The truth about wealth-creation is that it takes hard work. No-one hired you, Walton, directly out of school and made you CEO. Why not?
Because no matter how much of genius you may be you need to work you way up. Same goes for wealth. You may not like all the intermediate steps mucking about on the way up, but that's the way it works.
Consider China which has, over the past decade, taken 300 million people out of poverty. That is quite an astonishing number.
The reason the dollar is losing its importance, the reason the US economy is looking less dominant is NOT because Americans have gotten poorer, but because of the immense amount of new wealth that has entered the world's economy because of the astonishing growth in India and China.
Walton, you are watching a miracle taking place right here, in our lifetimes. Hundreds of millions of people are working their way out of poverty without the help of NGOs or peculiar ideas of centralised, state-controlled economies.
The only place in the world that steadfastly seems incapable of changing is Africa. The reason is because every bad idea that faux academics and political scientists come up with gets dumped here. Instead of sharing best practice, Africa gets idealism and morality plays.
The madness must be stopped. And that's why I'm here, and you're in Scotland.
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