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Are Poor Countries Doomed?

2014-01-21 · explainer · John · 3:51 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Global development (also: Economics) · mode: News analysis · tags: timely hook, heavy topic, self promotion

Drawing on Bill and Melinda Gates's new letter, John argues that poor countries are not doomed, foreign aid is not a waste, and saving children's lives does not cause overpopulation — and that rich countries benefit too.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — More than 6 million children died in 2013: the fewest in hundreds of years

  • ★★★ John says more than 6 million children died worldwide in 2013 — horrible and unjust — yet the lowest in quite a while, even as world population steadily increased. — 00:00:01 · child mortality
  • ★★ Quizzing Hank, John says the world did not see fewer than 6.3 million child deaths in 1975 (population 4 billion) or 1900 (1.6 billion), when probably more than 8 million died. (hedged) — 00:00:11 · child mortality
  • ★★★ John says Earth has not seen a year with so few child deaths in hundreds of years, maybe a thousand. (hedged) — 00:00:25 · child mortality

00:00:32 — The Gates Foundation and Bill and Melinda's letter on three myths about development; the 'rule of Twitter following'

  • ★★ John is a big fan of the Gates Foundation, whose mission statement — his favorite — holds that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy and productive life. — 00:00:32
  • ★★★ John says Bill and Melinda Gates just released a letter highlighting three myths about development. — 00:00:40
  • ★ Joking, John invokes a 'rule of Twitter following' he just made up: you may call anyone you follow on Twitter by first name — like Barack, Beyonce and Ellen. (joke) — 00:00:46 · Twitter, Barack Obama

00:00:57 — Myth 1: poor countries are doomed to stay poor (Africa's growth, Botswana, India, Brazil)

  • ★★★ Myth one: John says it is not true that poor countries, especially in Africa, are doomed to stay poor forever, a claim he hears all the time. — 00:00:57 · extreme poverty
  • ★★ John says seven of the ten fastest-growing economies of the last five years are in Africa. — 00:01:09
  • ★★ Bill Gates (quoted): Quoting Bill Gates: look skeptically at anyone who treats an entire continent as an undifferentiated mass of poverty and disease. — 00:01:14
  • ★★ Adjusted for inflation, Botswana's income per person was $383 in 1960 and is now $12,000 — $48,000 for a family of four; John calls it an extreme example. — 00:01:29
  • ★★ John says that in the last fifty years income per person has quadrupled in India and nearly quintupled in Brazil. — 00:01:38

00:01:45 — Myth 2: foreign aid is a waste (budget shares, polio, malaria, measles, TB)

  • ★★★ Myth two is that foreign aid is a waste; John argues even small aid budgets have produced tremendous results. — 00:01:45 · aid effectiveness
  • ★★ Quizzing viewers, John says foreign aid is 3% of the budget if you're Norwegian and less than 1% in the United States. — 00:01:48 · United States, aid effectiveness
  • ★★★ John says 25 years ago there were 350,000 new polio cases a year; today, thanks to the aid-funded polio eradication initiative, there are fewer than 400. — 00:01:58
  • ★★ John says malaria, measles and TB have all declined dramatically, and healthier kids go to school more and later work more than if chronically ill or disabled. — 00:02:09 · malaria, tuberculosis, global health

00:02:19 — Myth 3: saving lives leads to overpopulation; investments show phenomenal returns

  • ★★★ Myth three: John says it is just not true that saving lives leads to overpopulation; population growth declines as infant mortality declines, all over the world. — 00:02:19
  • ★★ Melinda French Gates (quoted): Quoting Melinda Gates: we make the future sustainable when we invest in the poor, not when we insist upon their suffering. — 00:02:31
  • ★★★ John sums up: these investments show phenomenal returns, and the greatest risk is abandoning success because we wrongly think of it as failure. — 00:02:40 · aid effectiveness
  • ★★ John repeats that fewer children died in 2013 than in any year on record. — 00:02:48 · child mortality

00:02:52 — Wealthier countries benefit when poor countries become less poor: TFIOS sales in Brazil

  • ★★★ Countering the news, John argues wealthier countries benefit when poor countries become less poor: more people able to make wonderful things and to buy what others make. — 00:02:52
  • ★★ John says the Brazilian edition of The Fault in Our Stars, whose title he butchers in Portuguese, has sold hundreds of thousands of copies in Brazil, more than in Germany or the UK. — 00:03:16 · The Fault in Our Stars, United Kingdom
  • ★★ John says once-'incurably poor' Brazil now has, by some measures, a healthier book publishing landscape than many European countries, benefiting YA novelists in Indianapolis too. (hedged) — 00:03:27 · Europe, Indianapolis

00:03:39 — Thanks to Brazilian readers and the Gates Foundation; link to the letter; sign-off

  • ★★ John thanks the Gates Foundation for decreasing world suck, points to the letter in the doobly-doo and says it is really worth reading. — 00:03:39 · world suck

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: aid effectiveness · Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation · child mortality · extreme poverty · Gates Foundation annual letter · human overpopulation

Also: People: Barack Obama · Beyoncé · Bill Gates · Ellen DeGeneres · Melinda French Gates

Works: The Fault in Our Stars

Organizations: Global Polio Eradication Initiative · Twitter

Terms: world suck

Concepts: economic growth · malaria · measles · polio · tuberculosis

Places: Africa · Botswana · Brazil · Europe · Germany · India · Indianapolis · Norway · United Kingdom · United States

fact: infant mortality rate

Also centred on Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: Baby Names: Thoughts from Rural Ethiopia · What Can't a Billion Dollars Buy?

Also centred on Gates Foundation annual letter: Will Life Get Better for the Poor? · How Energy and Time Change Everything · Human Life Is Getting Better. Faster Than Ever Before. · I Predicted the Pandemic (over and over and over again)

Also centred on human overpopulation: 7,000,000,000 People

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