Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Poverty

September 11, 2012

Appreciating the Role of Subsidiarity

Subsidiarity, the idea that those closest to a problem should be the ones to solve it, plays a particular role in development. However, it can be an idea that is a bit “slippery”: who does what and when? Continue Reading...
September 07, 2012

The Greatest Weapon Against Child Poverty

To truly understand what a conservative believes, you must know what it is they want to conserve. Like many other Christians who identify as conservatives, my own answer to that question would be the same as that of Russell Kirk: The institution most essential to conserve is the family. Continue Reading...
September 05, 2012

Dalrymple: British aid to India only fuels corruption

You have to hand it to Theodore Dalrymple: he doesn’t mince words. In an August 2012 piece in The Telegraph, Dalrymple let it be known that British plans to continue international aid to India are a, well…bad idea: …our continued aid to India is nevertheless a manifestation of the national administrative, mental and ethical torpor, as well as incompetence and corruption, that is leading us inexorably to economic and social disaster. Continue Reading...
September 04, 2012

Are slums ever good?

It doesn’t seem that anyone would WANT to live in a slum. But that is not necessarily true, according to Charles Kenny of Foreign Policy. In fact, for many of the world’s poor, a slum can offer opportunities and services not available in rural areas.  Across the world today, thanks to vaccines and underground sewage systems, average life expectancies in big cities are considerably higher than those in the countryside; in sub-Saharan Africa, cities with a population over 1 million have had infant mortality rates one-third lower than those in rural areas. Continue Reading...
August 20, 2012

What is a social entrepreneur and why do they matter?

There is a lot of talk today about “social entrepreneurs.” What is a social entrepreneur, and how does that differ from a business entrepreneur? Why do social entrepeneurs matter? According to the Ashoko website: Social entrepreneurs are individuals with innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social problems. Continue Reading...
August 09, 2012

Get an MBA, Save the World

If you want to work in international development, says Charles Kenny, go work for a big, bad multinational company: Kids today — they just want to save the world. But there is more than one way to make the planet a better place. Continue Reading...
July 19, 2012

Monks, Florists, and the Poor

It’s hard to think of anything more onerous than preventing enterprising people from entering the market. To do so is to interfere with their ability to serve others and engage in their vocation. Continue Reading...
July 02, 2012

Feeding the Poor, Bureaucracy Style

From India comes this tragic headline: As India’s kids starve, $1.5 billion worth of grain rots How does a country have starving people while it is producing so much food that it is literally rotting from being left outside in the open? Continue Reading...