Paul Polak
Out of Poverty
What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail (BK Currents)
Berrett-Koehler, 2008
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How to help millions of subsistence farmers: Cheap irrigation and homemade fertilizer work; government handouts don’t.
Recommendation
Free-market advocate Paul Polak is an atypical poverty expert. He compellingly argues that handouts do not alleviate poverty and might make it worse. Instead, he insists, the true solution to poverty lies in unleashing the poor’s entrepreneurial power. Polak says successful entrepreneurs like him are the ones who can help the poor make more money. His company designs cheap water pumps and irrigation systems that sell for a profit while helping subsistence farmers make more money. Although he frequently repeats the same points, Polak’s treatise is a lively read. getAbstract recommends Polak’s point of view to readers who seek a contrary – and practical – perspective on the problem of global poverty.
Summary
About the Author
Paul Polak founded International Development Enterprises, which sells products to rural farmers in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ethiopia and other poor countries. In 2007, IDE received a $13 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Polak won the Scientific American Top 50 award and an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award.
Comment on this summary
- The solution to poverty is entrepreneurship
- You have to market different for this segment
- There is out there a huge market underserved
- The only thing poor people needs is to earn more
- Price is more important than quality (and there is a logically valid reason)