The documentary Poverty inc. highlights the issues surrounding how people view poor nations and how their response does more harm than good. To start the documentary shows how charitable organizations push the narrative that poor nations have no enterprise or infrastructure of their own. When it comes to giving to charities people often view the citizens of impoverished counties as being helpless and simply not able to make an income. So in order to help these people donations are given to charities who in turn flood the market of the impoverished country with goods or food. As we saw in Haiti donations were able to fund rice donations to the country, however, this extreme donation that should have been short-term moved long term running the rice farmers out of business. Also as interviewee, Ken Michel mentions, the Haitian people used to eat a mere 2-3 times a week, but since the influx of rice has dominated the food markets, farmers can no longer produce varieties of foods, and the Haitian people eat rice 3 meals a day. This is one example of how the response to famine does more harm than good. Another example is TOMS Shoes. The company's model of “buy-one-give-one” had the intentions of good but rather put African shoemakers out of business. The company also used advertisements to show children in Africa without any shoes to increase their sales. The documentary did not mention the profitability of TOMS, however, I believe that their profit margins should be noted. The company spends $9 to make a pair of shoes but sells them for over $100, so with their model they still manage to make a profit of over $80 per pair. Luckily, the brand changed this model around 2018 to focus on giving to community-oriented charities based in the impoverished nation. Towards the end of the documentary, we begin to see charities and organizations focused on creating businesses. This is by far the best effort that has been made to help improve impoverished communities. As mentioned in the documentary the goal should “teach a man to fish” and organizations should help build international connections so that people can have the tools and resources needed to leave poverty.
This documentary was able to help me better understand the true living conditions of impoverished nations. Often times the United States portrays 3rd world nations as desolate and in need of all the help, they can get. As the film points out, this is not the case. Countries often push to become a part of global trade and to have control over their own resources. Unfortunately, the good intentions people have when giving donations end up hurting the people they are attempting to help.
