Designing systems to end poverty and invest in next generations livelihoods

[chris macrae]

Up until world war 2 this was the most central purpose of economists. Its summed up as the hippocratic oaths of te professions in Keynes general theory. Alumni around keynes including - vone hayek, schumavcher and schunmpeter - animated dailogues on why it was esential to ssutain community-integrating economics however much the futire of teh twentieth centiry also needed to sort out peaceful world trade.

youth Capitalisms Invitations #2030now #2025now #2015now #2018now -all of these relay around what the net generation can value as its 2 defining social movements -lets discuss which of tese 4 invitations you might like to linkin to - and then how they are all related depending what culture and demographic is your human starting point. Lets make some diaries of how the future is actined now and can resolve conflicts and stuff the human race never had acess to before it became hyperconected and our lanet becamse borderless to live and work in -the greatest productiuvity revolution of all - greater than eg the industrial revolution (becasue that started in diferentb places at diferent times whereas the net generation converges as one whole)

 

An additional surce of futue hostory is the Economit's 195=43 publication of its first 100 yeras. If you ever doubt that the scottish and french entreprenurail schools of economics were all about the future gaols of improving next generation livelihhods everywher you should read this book. It is a diary of what hapened to the purpose of the founder of The Economst James Wislon. Scotalnad had been taken over by endgland aftaer a banking scam in early 1700s which had caused scotland to be bankrupt. Over the next 150 yeras London organsied things in such a way that halkf of scots couldnt dfind jobs and went worldiwde. Scotland was thus a primary Diapora nation of the time and a lab for nwhat it was like to be colnied by the English. By 19=843 James had had enough. He came down from scotland, and became a member of parliament with the main aim of throwing out the halpf of MPs that were sponsored by big cested inetrests in particular those who had passed the corn laws- a producer monoply that was causing starvation. He founde dThye Economist to helop sort out which MPs and leaders oout of London could be trusted. Its 2 gaoals were to mediate an end to hunager and to mediat the end of capital abuse of youth as the industrial revolution caused spun ever greater social change. While he started this from the viewpoint of wanting to chnage impact of London's empire on scots, Queen Victoria started to prefer the idea of ruling over commonwelath instead of slave-making empire. So she asked Wilso to start a project in Calcutta to start reforming Raj banking. Unfortunately 9 months into this project James died of dairrjea. It was one hundred years later that calcutta discovered the cure was mixing biolied water, sugar and salt in the coorect proprtions- oral rehydration. It was this cure that became pivotal to scalloing garssroors end poverty bamking networks in banagldesh when that nation finally got bindependence in 1971. Bagladesh suffered the double whally - it was at the end of being doubly empired over - by Britain until Indian continent independence and then by what was then called West pakistan. After the war of idnependence bangaldesh rural areas started ith literally no infrastructure - no electricity, no running water and non sanitation, no communal ways of lernings, no raods other than patheys just wide enough for rickshaws. So it was thatb over Bagladesh's next 40 yeras , 15 million vilage mothers linked in the greatest end poverty experiments ever to be finaced daily around their livelihoods and to represent big investments that their savings clubbed together to make. Here was the great practical experiment that James day wasnt ready to build. Interestingly the first 25 yeras of womens grassroots networking were built out of communicatiosn that were no more advanced than James had been but bwhere such life crotical solutions as oral rehydration were the first for circes of 60 vilage motehrs to practice communally and for bank managers to cross-fertilise as each manager visited 60 lednding and saving circkes  week, In Bangladesh the only advantage of rural is that much of it is very compact. In places where BRAC and Grmeen bank brached first, a local branch manager could find 60 groups of 60 mothers all withing 4 miles walk which the manager and a smal team visted every week. These managers were focused on how do we find the moment when an individual can scale up her productivity if she gets a loan. This was abhout banking investing in young feamle livelihoods - the exact opposite of runjning finacial systems to trap people in debt. It was about finding the solution to poverty that keynsian alumni in the first half of teh 20th century identiofied as solutions 2 million vilages need to find and replicate - an intervention we will call microfranchising (though there are various synoyms). A michrofranchsie empowers a small service team - in barefoot bankings case about 4 satff - to serve local communities most vital need in cuch a way that all the productive value stays in the community. In other words the worlds graeest microentrepreneusr design franchises that are as perfectly honed as a mcdonalds but which take no value out of the cmmunity - and thius helpo grow family and youth out of every community.