How the Rich Develop the Poor

662 Words3 Pages
“How the Poor Develop the Rich” Précis Although many believe that the rich are in charge of developing the poor, Susan George has proven this theory to be false. In fact, she has proven that the opposite is true, the poor develop the rich. The many ways in which we look to save money and pay our debt have proven to be ineffective without the help of the poor. This first aspect of this failure is the financial viewpoint. Since 1982, our debt has continued to increase at a rapid rate. As of 1990, countries in the South were paying an average of $6.5 billion in just interest. These extremely high debt payments create a continuation of the national and worldwide debt that has been increasing for a number of years. All of this money is “remitted to private banks, state creditors, and international public institutions,” (George 208) and the cycle just continues. Another way in which our methods have proven to be ineffective is in opportunity debt. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are in charge of major creditor countries and have the power to manage debtor’s economies. By making sure that every citizen pays their debt on time, many people go into even more of a financial struggle to pay off one thing at a time. Having these two companies in charge of the debt system has proven to be ineffective. George argues the only way to get rid of this issue to get out of the system that the IMF and World Bank provides, but to do this a country must pay off a majority of their debt. This is very hard for many countries to do because they have been a part of the system for so long. Debtor countries have deprived some of their poorest people of basic resources because they put so much emphasis on providing the private banks and agencies of rich countries with their money. By the poor giving their money to the rich, countries like the US are able to
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