Do Aid Work By Giving Money Away
21 Jul 2003
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If you were down on your luck, would you want me to give you a sack of wheat? Or would you rather have money to buy what you need? Fine. Victims of humanitarian crises are like that too. In most cases people with money in their pockets can solve their own problems. Even many famines happen a day or two's drive by a determined trucker from a place where food is for sale. There are times and places where civil and commercial order has gone by the board; then you really do need the kind of activity we normally think of as aid work: convoys, feeding stations, Hercules transporters. But even in unpromising circumstances the micro-economy is often ready and willing to do the job more cheaply.
Of course, you can't just give money away. You have to give it to people who need it, and in a way that it doesn’t get stolen. Fine – you had to do that when you were giving away sacks of wheat, too. Then again maybe you fear that if you give people money, shopkeepers overcharge them. I think often this is the opposite of true. An aid agency buying in bulk should have some buying power: but in practice you don’t have the time or staff to check what you buy, or you pay over the odds to import in bulk, or you are in a hurry and suppliers give you the runaround. On the other hand if you put a hundred dollars in the hands of a very poor person he goes from stall to stall and haggles like hell.
Granted, sometimes there are only a few shops selling at famine prices and the little guy gets ripped off. But the answer is simple: open another shop. Don’t buy two hundred tons of wheat at $6 a sack and give them away. Give everyone five bucks, then buy two hundred sacks and offer them for sale at $5 each. You bet the rest of the bazaar puts its price down to $4.75. People get their wheat just the same, but you save money for the next disaster, and everyone has 25 cents in change.
A tougher problem is that the best thing to do with the money may be different for the individual and the community. A refugee family gets money to help return to their native village. What would you do in their shoes? They may quite reasonably stuff it under the mattress against another catastrophe. But what the aid agency wants is that they go home and build a house, because if enough people do that there is a populous village again; then the dangers of returning reduce, and a future catastrophe is less likely.
In short, the main problem with money is, maybe people don't spend it as you hoped. This, though, is a problem with any kind of assistance. Everything can be sold, and most things can be stolen. The micro-economy is always working, even if it's not always working for you. If you want someone to build a house, you think just because you give him some roof beams, rather than the money to buy them, that he's going to build a house? Not if he doesn't want to. He sells the beams. Any thing with value can become money. The only difference is, if you give money you cut out the middle man. The only way to solve this problem, whether you gave money or things, is by arduous and unglamorous paperwork, supplemented by regular Going To Look.
I can’t help wondering if this is part of why giving money away is not more popular in the aid world. If you have a big convoy with sacks and pallets of useful things, you see that happening and you get a feeling of doing something useful already. Then the sacks have gone and the pallets are empty, and the job is done – or so you think. Convoys are a thrill. Feeding stations are a noble enterprise. Checking people did something sensible with money before you give them more is dull. And if you labour under a thoughtless loathing of capitalism, which attitude seems to correlate with the admirable compassion that drives many people into aid work, you may even think money is inherently wicked and corrupting.
In fact it is none of these things. Putting money in people’s hands respects their ability to solve their own problems, and their prerogative to decide which problems are most urgent. It encourages the local economy rather than swamping it. It lets people come up with ways to do things that a foreigner could not think up in a month of Sundays. And it’s cheap.
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live comfortably with airconditioning, winter and summer, to smoke our cigarettes, and drink our wine. What if we had to do
it all ourselves. Could we. Would we. Money is mainly designed for one main purpose to control the population of people,
to manage their behavior, so everyone is complacent in society to pay taxes.
Mushrifa wrote on 4 Jun 2008
Hello,
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terismoon wrote on 19 Aug 2007
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and I'm just not able to do it on my own. If you could find it in your heart to give, it would be so greatfully appreciated. Even
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terismoon wrote on 19 Aug 2007
Hello, I am writing to ask someone to help me get out of debt. I have tried so many times to do it on my own, but there is alwas
something that happens that takes that little I had saved for bills to go away. I just need to pay off my bills to be able to sleep
nights and not wake up in a cold sweat having anxiety attacks. My children are going without, and I adopted them, and it's just
not fair to them. They started out in life with the most horrific things happen to them, and I promised to give them a good life,
and I'm just not able to do it on my own. If you could find it in your heart to give, it would be so greatfully appreciated. Even
$1 would make such a difference. Please give only through paypal. I don't want scammers I just need help.
Thanks from the bottom top and inside of my heart.
wrote on 4 Apr 2007
wrote on 25 Jun 2005
Teresa McKinley wrote on 4 Jun 2005
Hello; I am writing to ask someone to help us out. My husband had to have open heart surgery to replace two heart valves, we have so many hospital, and doctor bills that we will never see clear of them. When he had the surgery we had to use credit to pay our bills. So we have them also. We took in a friend and her grandson after she had a heart attack, she could not live on $187. a month. Well, now my mother in law is with us because she is not able to take care of herself any more and my husband is a only child. We have two girls that are month in college so they don't have to end up like us. They work part-time, but it is just my husband and myself working to support us. Please help us out, god bless you all.
Bonney wrote on 27 May 2005
has anybody been helped by these online appeals?
wrote on 18 May 2005
John Drake wrote on 28 Mar 2005
Ex wife wanted support and college. Can't afford both. To frig'in bad we're going to court. Boom 300 a month to 1200 + college for two. Wippie! Credit gone/cars repo'd pain and suffering but so it goes. Help
MIchael Payne wrote on 17 Mar 2005
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Thank you
allen wrote on 27 Feb 2005
allen wrote on 27 Feb 2005
Hello, I am writing in hopes of finding a good Samaritan, who is willing to help us pay some of our bills. We honestly need all the help that we can get. I haven't been working since last January (2003), due to an early maternity leave. I have been staying home with our baby since having her in April (2003). The Insurance that I had through work, expired on the day our baby was born, so that left us with some pretty heavy medical expenses. My husband is the only one working, but he is a veteran of the first Persian Gulf War and suffers from many different illnesses that he came home with. One of the illnesses he has is gout, which is very painful for him. The gout comes and goes all the time, which makes it hard for my husband to go to work. He misses a lot of work because of that. His pay checks are not very much. We are constantly getting calls from bill collectors, who do not get the concept that we just don't have the emoney to pay. Right now, we have a negative balance of $216 in our checking account, which seems to be growing more and more. We are trying to figure out how we are going to pay next month's rent and the car payment that is due every other week. Right now, we don't even have money to buy regular baby food for our baby, so she just eats whatever we have. Although my husband's health is so bad, his veteran's benefit check is only $106. This is not a lot, but it does come in handy when we have nothing. We have been trying to get his benefits to increase, but it may be 10 years or more before that will happen. Please somebody, will you please help us? We would help you, if you were in our shoes and we had the money. If you are able to, I hope you will have a heart and help us. Thank you and God bless you. hotweather25@hotmail.com
wrote on 26 Feb 2004
I Need HELP please , I got hurt , lost my job my only income and insurance and I do not qualify for anything except some foodstamps. I have no kids so i can't get anything in florida. I an still disabled , I have no use of my right hand and I can only stand and walk a foot at the most and this is with intense pain. I am trying to get social security, its a nightmare maybe take up to a year and I can't get any umployment either believe me I've tried everything. Im on so many medications and I don't know what i am gonna do. PLEASE HELP Angela Giering Giering4@aol.com
i live in a poor area,with low wages,and in need of house repair and a small increase in my standard of living,we can never get ahead,always a new problem to deal with,,i would greatly apreciate any kind of help,and really do need it,life should be made a bit easier,for everyone,thank you,,Robert,,,
my names ivan im 40yrs old and insulin dependant,i live with my mom and was raised poor,i do own a 1989 wrecker however i cannot compete with the bigger companies out there,my mom recently had a quadruple bypass and between her recovery and medication cost along with my rent,utilities,groceries,phone bill etc. i am totally drained.as of this writing we have been eating red beans and drinking water for the last 43 days. if there is anyone who is able to donate any financial donation please e me for the address.god bless those who are able and god bless those who are not.......ivan
PLEASE SOMEONE help me and my family winter is coming and we have no where to go our home has to be torn down for the complete story please visit my familys website at savetheshumways.com and may godbless you please give some how i have apaypal account if you would like to donate on my site. thank you the shumways
PLEASE SOMEONE HELP US AT SAVETHESHUMWAYS.COM WE REALLY NEED HELP.
Eric Raye wrote on 2 Sep 2003
I am 34 years old and have 2 beautiful children, A few weeks ago I was traveling for my job
and when my wife brought me to the airport and kissed me good bye I had no clue it would be forever.
She went home and cleaned everything out of the home that was ours and mine. We had only
been married for 1 yr and no children with this wife. However my 2 kids are from my first marriage
and I have them 1 night a week and everyother weekend. She cloaed the checking account
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close to paying the bills especially the credit card and I have worked so hard to maintain
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that can be of assistance you would mean the world to me. My home number is 920-954-9435 and no this is no
joke. I have to go to court this week and have no idea what the outcome will be. Please I am begging
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big kind heart PLEASE!!!!