Several weeks ago I overheard a conversation between two people. One was a friend of mine, now working to be a missionary in Zimbabwe. His main passion is using people in Zimbabwe to build houses - creating housing where there is a huge shortage, and creating jobs. Sounds like a win/win.
He was describing this mission to his boss. The boss had an interesting view of the housing shortage there. He said something to the effect of: "They should let some capitalism loose over there. Get rid of all the bureaucracy."
You see, he was under the impression that any time there is a problem it MUST be caused by the government, and capitalism SURELY would be able to fix it.
Today's blog is about why I think I disagree with him.
How is capitalism going to encourage the building of housing for people who are poor? If they can't pay for the houses, who will? The core value system of capitalism doesn't support charity. The core of capitalism is defeat your competition, make profit at all cost.
The only way capitalism would touch Zimbabwe is if it could profit off of Zimbabwe.
If pure capitalism were introduced locally, you might see some entrepreneurial people of Zimbabwe, but where will they find start up capital? What bank will lend a poor man in a poor country a substantial amount of money to start a business?
My real question is, how does a country lift itself out of poverty? I'm not saying that capitalism shouldn't be part of the answer - I'm just saying that I don't think capitalism itself is enough to take an entire country from poor to self-sufficient. There needs to be a spark. Somehow, some capital needs to flow into the country so that businesses and jobs can be created.
I think that it's easy for those of us over here who are benefiting from capitalism (like wealthy business owners) to forget what it's like on the other side of capitalism's barrel. If you have nothing, and can't get anything, can't get a job, can't start a business... what do you do?
I don't really have any answers on this one. I'd really like to hear all of your thoughts.
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