The New Recruits is a somewhat recent film, produced by Ironbound Films for PBS, which highlights a battalion of jet-setting business students, who are also fellows in the Acumen Fund program, armed with a radical plan to end global poverty - by turning poor people into consumers.
Ah, yes: good ole' capitalism.
There is only one problem (okay, many but hypertension does run in the family, so I won't stress myself out too much): How do you sell shoes to a person with no feet?
Seriously, using capitalism to right the wrongs, which often happened because of capitalism, sounds - for a lack of a better word - ass backwards.
But I will say that the segments featuring Suraj Sudhakar, fellow in this program now working in Nairobi Kenya to sell, of all things, public pay toilets, were quite interesting. In one scene, Sudhakar, who is frustrated by the lack of progress to get these toilets in places that need it the most (i.e. the slum of Nairobi), is at dinner meeting David, the founder of Ikotoilet. David, who has been pushing his line of public pay toilets in more affluent sections of the city, shares with Sudhakar his theory of how capitalism can work for the betterment of all society.
"The theory I hold is that everybody would want something called fashion, if only they can afford. There is the issue of really making the subject a bit sexy. "Have you seen those toilets in the city? That's what is coming here. You mean that is coming here?" But if it was the reversal, it would be impossible to sell. The Ikotoilet would be like it was designed for the poor man and I don't want to sell it that way. People need to be proud. When we do the first Ikotoilet in the slum, everybody will be saying like, "What is in Nairobi--we have it!"
Yes, poor people needs to be and feel empowered through economics. And it is also true that people do tend to value things more if they pay for it, as oppose to getting it for free (that I learned while community organizing). However, the reality is that a lot of the products featured in this documentary were priced way too high for folks struggling to put food on the table. And generally speaking, if folks can't afford the very thing that they desire, they often resort to another unintended byproduct of social capitalism - social crime.
But as always, don't take my word for it, view the doc in its' entirely below and let me know what you think.
Ah, yes: good ole' capitalism.
There is only one problem (okay, many but hypertension does run in the family, so I won't stress myself out too much): How do you sell shoes to a person with no feet?
Seriously, using capitalism to right the wrongs, which often happened because of capitalism, sounds - for a lack of a better word - ass backwards.
But I will say that the segments featuring Suraj Sudhakar, fellow in this program now working in Nairobi Kenya to sell, of all things, public pay toilets, were quite interesting. In one scene, Sudhakar, who is frustrated by the lack of progress to get these toilets in places that need it the most (i.e. the slum of Nairobi), is at dinner meeting David, the founder of Ikotoilet. David, who has been pushing his line of public pay toilets in more affluent sections of the city, shares with Sudhakar his theory of how capitalism can work for the betterment of all society.
"The theory I hold is that everybody would want something called fashion, if only they can afford. There is the issue of really making the subject a bit sexy. "Have you seen those toilets in the city? That's what is coming here. You mean that is coming here?" But if it was the reversal, it would be impossible to sell. The Ikotoilet would be like it was designed for the poor man and I don't want to sell it that way. People need to be proud. When we do the first Ikotoilet in the slum, everybody will be saying like, "What is in Nairobi--we have it!"
Yes, poor people needs to be and feel empowered through economics. And it is also true that people do tend to value things more if they pay for it, as oppose to getting it for free (that I learned while community organizing). However, the reality is that a lot of the products featured in this documentary were priced way too high for folks struggling to put food on the table. And generally speaking, if folks can't afford the very thing that they desire, they often resort to another unintended byproduct of social capitalism - social crime.
But as always, don't take my word for it, view the doc in its' entirely below and let me know what you think.
Watch the full episode. See more The New Recruits.
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