William Easterly has a thought provoking post comparing an two analyses of food security in Africa from 1938 and 2o05.  He points out that the technical solutions proposed today are, in many cases, the same ones highlighted 70 years ago.

So why haven’t the technical recommendations been applied adequately after 70 years and untold billions of dollars? Here’s Easterly’s opinion:

Technical knowledge needs people to implement it – people who have the right incentives to solve all of the glitches and unexpected problems that happen when you apply a new technology, people who make sure that all the right inputs get to the right places at the right time, and local people who are motivated to use the new technology. The field that addresses all these incentives is called economics.

Economics isn’t the study of greed (as opposed to the study of compassionate aid). According to Lionel Robbins (1932), via Wikipedia, economics is “the science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses.”

It’s a practical science that studies how things get done and how people work together in the real world. Considering the history of attempts to save the world, perhaps more economics are in order. Yesterday I wrote about my respect for the “new school” of aid epitomized by investing in entrepeneurs. This is a school fo thought the recognizes the power of simple economics to create change.

I know it’s a consolation to think that we help others by our compassion. But isn’t that just a way of elevating ourselves? Perhaps the poor don’t want our compassion so much as freedom and fair playing field to succeed. Compassion has it’s time and place, to be sure, but compassion that witholds freedom and opportunity is servitude in disguise.

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2. Curry wins a man his freedom (what can we learn here?)
3. Individuals and Society in Japan
4. It’s our anniversary