Is Capitalism or Making Money from People’s Suffering a Bad Thing?

The reality of life is that money, the bulk of it, is made through one Law:

SOLVING A PROBLEM amongst people. Usually the more the people the more the money you are likely to make.

This principle is a challenge to many people especially when they view themselves as being recipients of that ‘help’.

The thing is, there is no such thing as ‘there is no money made’; the only thing (and accountants can help me here) is in which column the money you are making is in. The overall logic of all charity work (whether you call them a local body or an international body) is usually one: TAX!

I work for the non-profit industry (besides writing as a freelancer) and I am qualified to mention that all donor work boils down to one point: 'how much do we save by doing all this humanitarian work in a country with a high poverty rating?'

Typically, just as an example, the primary mobile operator in Kenya can save billions of shillings in Kenya money annually just by contributing to community development. The principle applies to Bill Gates Foundation, and all others, ad infinitum.

The point is, the world is largely ruled by capitalists who make profit by helping the 'poor' come out of their poverty at every point (not at some point in the future) and it is hard for most people to figure and accept that.

It is a tricky place to be really: if you see yourself benefiting from donor funds then you are ok with it. For instance, in Kenya you can benefit from Free Primary Education (FPE) by setting up a local business to provide uniforms at a lower price to the multitude children flocking onto the schools. Or, you can get angry because you do not need 'anyone's' help. In which instance, FPE will be a bad thing to you because there are suddenly too many children in one class and the load on the available resources is too high.

The surprising thing about being a philanthropist with an astonishing amount of money is that the majority of them actually support work that will go towards the ‘greater good’. They are more likely to support policy that will employ more teachers and make money from it to boot. The poor though will grouch about too much load on the teachers and the EXISTING infrastructure and ignore the opportunity to employ MORE teachers or build more facilities.

If you are really open minded, it will be ok that someone WILL make money by giving food for relief in some far flung town in Kenya while some politician sits on an important policy document that would have saved millions by helping more communities be self-sufficient food-wise. The MEGA philanthropists see that though and make money from the idiocy of weak governments and politicians who cannot choose policy that benefits the masses.

If you have beef with that, then you have not seen who your real ‘savior’ is; the selfish politician or the philanthropist who makes money through your poverty caused by bad policies… Both are never the devil…