Thoughts on Poverty...

Following my recently blog entries I have been thinking about the issue of poverty – the alleviation of which is often cited as a reason for economic development in developing countries. This is the kind of thing I hear at times here in Cusco and I also heard it while I was living in London – sometimes these things are said in an implied way, although there is at times the unspoken idea that those saying that want to be able to make their own profits in the process too.

The problem is that I believe ‘poverty’ is at best misunderstood and at worst that misunderstanding is (mis)used for financial gain. What do I mean by this? I look at Cusco – the developing tourism sector, the resultant foreign investment, not to mention the scale of urban-ward movement. It’s all justified at times on the basis that it’s developing the economy, although the foreigner-led profit hunt is never denied. While I haven’t seen any figures I think it’s a safe bet to guess that there is considerably more money flowing through this region now that say 20 years ago, but I doubt that everyone is better off.

Back to poverty… In a world where decisions (both personal and perhaps political) are often made primarily based on the fiscal impact it’s interesting to note that poverty is mostly defined in terms of fiscal factors – even the United Nations has universal poverty line determined in monetary terms. The problem I have with this is that I don’t believe that it’s a true and holistic picture (some people I have spoken to agree with this but don’t see any way out). While it’s possible to look at issues such as the so-called “culture of poverty” or the “cycle of poverty” among other things I want to focus on one idea.

Not too long ago a hypothetical “Paolo” may have been living below the UN-determined poverty line but in his community where forms of bartering were still central cash was not a central issue. He was living not too far from Cusco and as the changes took place in the town and surrounding areas he move into the city to find the “better life” everyone was talking about. Jump forward a few years… He’s a grandfather and his kids have more cash-in-hand that he did (even relatively speaking), but he and many like him are now second-class citizens in their home country/region. Why second-class? Because, fiscal responsibility says that the tourist-dollar is priority; that is what matters. He and others like him have money and perhaps a job of some sort, but are they better off or are they perhaps (in some non-fiscal way) actually poorer?