Jeffrey Sachs on Beating Global Poverty

After reading Jeff's responses, I cannot help but be embarrassed by his answers. Mr. Sachs, however eloquent and polished in his answers lacks fundamental logic and understanding of Africa or the Middle East. His answers of utopian sophisticated systems that only someone of his intellect can "truly understand" are not only flawed but irresponsible and reckless.

The reality is his propagated misdirection is indirectly killing millions of people and sometimes doing good is not always good. I have visited the Millennium project in Kenya, read his book, and compared it against his boastful accomplishments, which I found to be either grossly overstated or fabricated. The project specifically in Kenya is an embarrassment to common sense, and cannot be replicated and is not a success by any stretch of the imagination. His idea that you can do 460 things to eliminate poverty only allows for more lack of accountability and excuses if the project or ideal fails. When failure occurs, Mr. Sachs blames it on corruption or internal pressures or breakdowns. When it succeeds(which it has not other than in manipulated and propagated terms) he touts his enormous intellect in understanding emerging and developing markets.

Fundamentally, the answers are simpler than the sophisticated algorithm Mr. Sachs has created. He speaks very well in his indictment of the billions we are spending to get nowhere, but does not understand the problem he is trying to dictate a solution for. I agree with his assessment of our failure, but not his solution, as it fails to again address the problem.

If Mr. Sachs for example would like to solve food scarcity issues, he must get to the root of the problem. The root is not food scarcity, but water scarcity. As you go further into the problem of water scarcity you get to the real problem which is not water scarcity but management of the resource of water. If you build reservoirs in Africa to withstand drought cycles you will be able to solve many of the underlying issues related to food scarcity. Obviously the solution is much more detailed than a one paragraph solution, but after 21,000 pages of research, interviews, assessments on the ground, and dialog with Universities and institutional professionals, I was astounded by the lack of thoughtful planning and understanding of the problem.

I have spent almost 2 years in Kenya working in partnership with a government parastatal organization to design an agricultural plantation model. I have done assessments and strategy development for Sudan both with the North and South. I understand from a high level what the issues are, and with all due respect, there is a huge disconnect between Mr. Sachs theory and reality.

Great book to read, White Man's Burden by William Easterly. Great organization which defies NGO incompetency in developing regions, Technoserve. Dont take my word for it.... Go to Kenya and see for yourself... Reality will scare you.

Joseph Oltmann of CO 5:51AM May 17, 2009

I would gladly donate one percent of my income to end poverty. Why aren't there more economists like Sachs?

Laura of NC 3:05PM February 06, 2009

Old paradigms of thought are out the window. Getting our own house in order means "the world" because we are in many ways affected by what each does. Sachs is on the right track. People who really care must be willing to change thinking and give,for the future generations. Or it will be too late..

frank mattison of CA 3:43PM November 13, 2008

Sachs has part of the solution - but does not take into consideration the impact on poverty due of the political structure of these countries.

For the most part, it is almost impossible to set up a small enterprise in most third world countries because of the faulty legal structure and unimaginable bureaucracy... in fact, one can hardly even buy a home even if it were affordable!

A despotic or socialist government will so redistribute wealth that all incentive to productivity is lost or destroyed. Nepotism and corruption are out of control.

I wish there were a magic economic wand to wave over the poorest countries and make their intransigent problems disappear.... but pouring billions more into wishful thinking is destructive thinking...

Robert Hellebush of OH 12:53PM August 03, 2008