What rally burns my ass about the microcredit movement is that it supports the very ideology that creates poverty. Theoretically, it turns every individual into a mini capitalist, even if the only worker to be exploited is the self. It also makes a mash of the idea of capital, since it implies that what the microcredit recipients get is "capital."
Nothing I have left to say on this subject is printable.
Joanna
Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> On 10/17/06, boddi satva <lbo.boddi at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> connect poor people to the financial system
>
>
> In the heartland of capitalism called the USA, there are "56 million
> individuals" who have no access to a regular financial system.
>
> <blockquote>In 2002, there were almost 56 million individuals in the
> U.S. who did not have either a savings or checking account at a bank
> or other traditional financial institution.1 Additionally, over 83
> percent of families without a bank account earn under $25,000.2 These
> families often use alternative financial services, including check
> cashing, payday loans, refund anticipation loans, and others, that
> provide convenience at high cost. A 2004 report estimated that these
> alternative financial services handled 280 million transactions,
> generating $78 billion in fee revenue.3 As a result, "unbanked"
> low-income workers who can least afford to pay more for basic services
> often do. They pay to cash checks, are subject to higher interest
> rates on credit, and pay higher fees and interest rates for consumer
> loans, auto loans, and home mortgages. (David Marzahl, O.S. Owen,
> Steve Neumann, and Joshua Harriman, "First Accounts: A U.S. Treasury
> Department Program to Expand Access to Financial Institutions,"
> Profitwise News and Views, February 2006,
> <http://www.chicagofed.org/community_development/files/02_2006_first_accounts.pdf>)
>
>
> Given recent (still continuing?) discussion of American Populism in
> the 19th century, I should add that populists called for establishment
> of postal savings banks in the Omaha Platform: "We demand that postal
> savings banks be established by the government for the safe deposit of
> the earnings of the people and to facilitate exchange" (at
> <http://www.historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5361/>). That was an excellent
> demand, but it still remains unrealized.