Author | gongyouliu
Editor | gongyouliu
In the past few days, I finished reading the book "The Essence of Poverty" in my hometown. I read it relatively quickly, and finished it in less than 3-4 days. This is a book by a Nobel laureate in economics who studies the nature of poverty. It is a very famous masterpiece in the field of economics. This book is very worth reading, and its greatest value is to broaden your understanding of the world.
Since I worked and lived in Cambodia for almost a year, I have personally experienced the living conditions of very poor people. In addition, I have read a set of books "Shantaram" describing the life of the people at the bottom of India before, so I can empathize with the scenes described in the book. Here, the book "Xantalan" is the personal experience and feelings of an Australian fugitive who joined a gang in India. The story is very strong and it is definitely worth reading.
The book gives a very detailed and profound description of the poverty trap. The so-called poverty trap means that no matter how hard the poor work hard, it is difficult to get rid of the fate of poverty, and they may live poorer and poorer. There are many reasons for this, including the poor's own cognitive limitations, it is difficult for them to obtain more comprehensive information, and the social environment and even the government system's disregard for the poor.
There are many pages in the book describing the poor people's diet, medical care, childbirth, childcare, loans, business and other conditions. Each of these scenarios, under specific national conditions and social environments, is not very friendly to the poor, resulting in poor living conditions for them and falling into the vortex of the "poverty trap" for a long time from which they cannot extricate themselves. Here are a few examples that are still fresh in my memory, and let everyone feel how the life choices of the poorest people in the world are made.
Case 1: Poor people don’t spend all their money on the most calorie-dense foods
Even if they don't get enough to eat a lot of the time, they spend some of their money on calorie-friendly but better-tasting foods, and save for months or years to buy a long-lasting TV (whether it matters to them or not). how difficult it is). This shows that no matter how poor people are, they still desire to pursue good material and spiritual enjoyment, which may be determined by human nature.
Case 2: Poor people are less enthusiastic about things that bring long-term benefits, they may be more short-sighted
There are many examples of this in the book. For example, even though mosquito nets are cheap and can reduce the probability of children dying from diarrhea, they are not so enthusiastic to buy them (unless they are free). They are also not so enthusiastic about free vaccinations, and few people take their children to finish the vaccinations several times. It may be that their lives are too difficult and they hope to see the immediate benefits that something can bring, otherwise they don't have much enthusiasm to do it. There is a saying in China called "people are poor and short-sighted", and I think this is roughly what it means.
Case 3: Borrow usury to save money
The book tells about a woman who borrowed a usury loan with an annual interest rate of 20% from an individual, and deposited the money in a bank with an annual interest rate of only 4%, in order to prepare a dowry for her daughter who was about to get married. It is estimated that everyone must not understand why she did this. The reason she gave was that she didn't know what would happen in her daily life, so she usually didn't have money to save, but saved in this way (to prepare a dowry for her daughter), so as to bear the relatively large interest rate squeeze.
In addition, there is a relatively large space in the book explaining how to help the poor out of poverty through charity (helping the poor out of poverty is not a simple matter, it is very challenging, and sometimes giving money directly will not get good results), these Some are also worth knowing about.
Due to the different living environment and experience, everyone has different cognition. Everyone is "a frog at the bottom of a well" and may only see "one's own sky", so read more different books to understand The world can be better understood by people whose living conditions are very different from their own. I think this is the greatest value of reading this book. After all, Chinese urbanites have basically never experienced the living conditions of the poorest people in the world.
In short, for us who are still living well, after reading it, we will definitely feel that although we are under a lot of pressure now, compared with the poorest people in the world, we are still very happy. Readers who are interested in learning about this book can click the link below to purchase it.
