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The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time
The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time
By Jeffrey Sachs
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Number Of Pages: 416
Publication Date: 2006-02-28
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0143036580
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780143036586
Binding: Paperback
Celebrated economist Jeffrey Sachs has a plan to eliminate extreme poverty around the world by 2025. If you think that is too ambitious or wildly unrealistic, you need to read this book. His focus is on the one billion poorest individuals around the world who are caught in a poverty trap of disease, physical isolation, environmental stress, political instability, and lack of access to capital, technology, medicine, and education. The goal is to help these people reach the first rung on the "ladder of economic development" so they can rise above mere subsistence level and achieve some control over their economic futures and their lives. To do this, Sachs proposes nine specific steps, which he explains in great detail in The End of Poverty. Though his plan certainly requires the help of rich nations, the financial assistance Sachs calls for is surprisingly modest--more than is now provided, but within the bounds of what has been promised in the past. For the U.S., for instance, it would mean raising foreign aid from just 0.14 percent of GNP to 0.7 percent. Sachs does not view such help as a handout but rather an investment in global economic growth that will add to the security of all nations. In presenting his argument, he offers a comprehensive education on global economics, including why globalization should be embraced rather than fought, why international institutions such as the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank need to play a strong role in this effort, and the reasons why extreme poverty exists in the midst of great wealth. He also shatters some persistent myths about poor people and shows how developing nations can do more to help themselves.
Despite some crushing statistics, The End of Poverty is a hopeful book. Based on a tremendous amount of data and his own experiences working as an economic advisor to the UN and several individual nations, Sachs makes a strong moral, economic, and political case for why countries and individuals should battle poverty with the same commitment and focus normally reserved for waging war. This important book not only makes the end of poverty seem realistic, but in the best interest of everyone on the planet, rich and poor alike. --Shawn Carkonen
Book Description:
A landmark exploration of the way out of extreme poverty for the worlds poorest citizens
Among the most eagerly anticipated books of any year, this landmark exploration of prosperity and poverty distills the life work of an economist Time calls one of the worlds 100 most influential people. Sachss aim is nothing less than to deliver a big picture of how societies emerge from poverty. To do so he takes readers in his footsteps, explaining his work in Bolivia, Russia, India, China, and Africa, while offering an integrated set of solutions for the interwoven economic, political, environmental, and social problems that challenge the poorest countries. Marrying passionate storytelling with rigorous analysis and a vision as pragmatic as it is fiercely moral, The End of Poverty is a truly indispensable work.
Summary: Still unconvinced?
Rating: 3
The End of Poverty is a book of lofty goals, but it is important both for some of the issues it raises and for its position among development theorists of today.
**BUT** if you, like myself finished Jeffrey Sachs' book feeling less than satisfied, I recommend you complement his optimism with another book: William Easterly's "White Man's Burden." I strongly believe that these books read in conjuction are much more powerful than either read alone. Happy reading!
Summary: Good... but it lacks something
Rating: 3
This book was intended to be read by anyone. As a fun, lighthearted read, it's OK. But if you're an economist, like I am, will find this one a bit repetitive and boring, with no real presentation fo solutions to the poverty issues around the world.
The part that really caught my attention was Mr. Sachs' work in Russia, Poland, India, China and Bolivia as an economic advisor. Wish he had extended those chapters a bit more, adding more details.
Summary: The End of Humility
Rating: 1
Sachs is pompous and self-important to the point of distraction. It's amazing to have to say that about a book about ending poverty, but it's true. This book is a travelogue of adventures in high-level negotiations, focusing on Sachs' experience advising governments about problems infinitely less complex than the one he wants to address: ending extreme poverty. If you want to feel good about Jeffrey D. Sachs, this is the book for you; if you want a rigorous introduction to the issues, look someplace else.
Summary: The End of Poverty?
Rating: 4
I recently read Jeffery Sachs' The End of Poverty. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but was excited to pick up at development best-seller- not a common combination! While I usually try to avoid non-fiction when I'm not at school or working, and tend to have a fiction addiction, I think TEOP will find its way onto my 2007 top ten list.
The book does a great job of summarizing most of my four year international development degree, from discussions of absolute versus relative poverty, to the best way to address the issues of environment, health, education and livelihoods in the developing world. And Sachs does it in a way that makes development concepts accessible: he looks at development as a ladder, and those facing extreme poverty have not been able to get their feet on even the first rung. Thus, the requirements of aid can be seen as inputs to help that group reach the bottom of the ladder and begin to work their way up. He also brings down the issues to a single number: $75billion dollars a year until 2025, at which point he believes that all human kind could be on the development ladder and extreme poverty would be eliminated. Hence, the End of Poverty!
Situated, as he is, in the heart of American development politics and economics, Sachs was also able to do a good job of explaining the successes and deficiencies of his country's aid contributions. Like the discussion in the previous post, this has helped to give me a more detailed view of America's role in the development world, which I find really interesting. He called on a number of American thinkers and activists to give power to his arguments for the potential of the end of extreme poverty. Paraphrasing Martin Luther King, Jr, Sach's says "The bank of international justice is not bankrupt," and explains how people like King, Gandhi, and Mandela "transformed the impossible into the inevitable." While many people think ending poverty is impossible, and that we in the West can't afford it, Sachs is busy making us realize that we can, and we should.
His point is obviously more and better action, which is heralded over and over again by poverty activists like Bono, Angelina Jolie or Bob Geldof. But the good thing about Sachs is that he manages to mainstream his ideas about aid and development, and introduce them in more conservative economic circles than would usually listen to the rockstar rolemodels. In his final "to do list", Sachs calls everyone to "make a personal commitment," something I believe in very strongly. He ends the book with this quote:
Let no one be discouraged by the belief that there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills- against misery and ignorance, injustice and violence...Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. -- Robert Kennedy
Summary: Passionate, but conveniently ignores historical reality
Rating: 4
Sachs passionately promotes the Millenium Development Goals devised by the UN and pleads that if the developed economies of the world commit the resources they've promised these goals will be met. The book is well written and very engrossing.
Unfortunately, much of what Sachs promotes does not relate well with historical reality. The UN and its associated aid agencies have consistently developed grandiose goals which are never met, mainly because the personnel developing the goals are not the same ones determining the contributions and don't determine their objectives based on financial limitations. Sachs does not indicate how the developed world's contributions will be more effectively managed than in the past. Also, since it's apparent the developed world is not going to provide the funding required by the MDGs, he provides no suggestion on how the MDGs can be scaled to provide the most effective use of resources. It's an all or nothing proposition.
Sachs links too many items simply to dollar figures and fails to take into account ethnic conflicts, religous and societal beliefs, as well as any of a number of other factors that can derail aid providers' well-intentioned efforts. He brushes aside poor governance in Africa by stating there are a select few other countries around the world that are even worse. Poor governance and corruption prevent development regardless if it's the worst in the world or not.
Regardless, Sachs does promote a number of ideas that are valid and likely to be successful, such as malaria nets and debt relief to countries that have shown they have taken steps to govern their finances in an acceptable manner, especially if applied and monitored separately and not part of a comprehensive plan to fix everything at the same time.
This book should be read with William Easterly's "White Man's Burden", as Easterly provides the counterpoint to Sach's big Planner approach to foreign aid, and suggests that a more market-based approach, with limited, clearly defined goals would provide a better use of the limited resources available to aid providers.
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The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time
By Jeffrey Sachs
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Number Of Pages: 416
Publication Date: 2006-02-28
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0143036580
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780143036586
Binding: Paperback
Celebrated economist Jeffrey Sachs has a plan to eliminate extreme poverty around the world by 2025. If you think that is too ambitious or wildly unrealistic, you need to read this book. His focus is on the one billion poorest individuals around the world who are caught in a poverty trap of disease, physical isolation, environmental stress, political instability, and lack of access to capital, technology, medicine, and education. The goal is to help these people reach the first rung on the "ladder of economic development" so they can rise above mere subsistence level and achieve some control over their economic futures and their lives. To do this, Sachs proposes nine specific steps, which he explains in great detail in The End of Poverty. Though his plan certainly requires the help of rich nations, the financial assistance Sachs calls for is surprisingly modest--more than is now provided, but within the bounds of what has been promised in the past. For the U.S., for instance, it would mean raising foreign aid from just 0.14 percent of GNP to 0.7 percent. Sachs does not view such help as a handout but rather an investment in global economic growth that will add to the security of all nations. In presenting his argument, he offers a comprehensive education on global economics, including why globalization should be embraced rather than fought, why international institutions such as the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank need to play a strong role in this effort, and the reasons why extreme poverty exists in the midst of great wealth. He also shatters some persistent myths about poor people and shows how developing nations can do more to help themselves.
Despite some crushing statistics, The End of Poverty is a hopeful book. Based on a tremendous amount of data and his own experiences working as an economic advisor to the UN and several individual nations, Sachs makes a strong moral, economic, and political case for why countries and individuals should battle poverty with the same commitment and focus normally reserved for waging war. This important book not only makes the end of poverty seem realistic, but in the best interest of everyone on the planet, rich and poor alike. --Shawn Carkonen
[此贴子已经被angelboy于2008-8-20 10:35:33编辑过]
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