At first I was not enjoying the book so much. The first half is basically overviews of the work Dr. Sachs has done helping various countries improve their economic systems. The case studies are mildly interesting and illustrate the kinds of analysis required to effectively rescue a country in the throws of hyperinflation and other economic afflictions, but mostly I got the feeling of “Look how smart I am. People should listen to me. When my plans didn’t work out, it was because (donor) governments didn’t act on them.”
And you know, maybe that’s fine, ‘cos he probably is that smart, and he certainly makes a case later in the book for rich countries not contributing.
The second half of the book delves deeper into what’s wrong in the world’s areas of extreme poverty – how bad the conditions are, and what needs to be fixed. Not to make the poor countries rich, or even comfortable, but to change extreme poverty into moderate poverty, so the countries at least have enough money to manage their own further growth. This was something I’d not encountered before – the idea that very poor countries can’t grow because they have only enough resources to barely function, and the amount of capital per capita tends to decline due to wear, disease (which can rob communities of experienced people) and population growth. So, the plan is to boost these countries to “the first rung of the development ladder”, after which they can invest in themselves and continue to grow.
Sachs finishes up with an analysis of the amount of money that it would take to achieve this bootstrapping, and how much the rich countries would have to give and how much they currently are (not). It’s a real eye-opener, seeing how the rich countries have pledged to supply 0.7% of their GNP to create sustainable development among the poor countries, and nearly none do – not Canada, not Japan, and certainly not the U.S., at 0.15%, and whose GNP far outstrips any of the others. Dr. Sachs writes convincingly, and has the stats to back up his arguments, about how we can’t afford not to help these countries. It’s certainly upped my guilt level. Now to see if I do anything about it…