RSF's Poverty Film emerges; will it be useful?

“The End of Poverty?,” a film funded largely by the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation, seems to have been shown at an auxiliary part of the Cannes film event, implying that it is complete. What little publicity I have found (more here) implies that it simply makes the point that poverty exists, it is large and serious worldwide, and is somehow the fault of more affluent countries. This may be news to many folks, but I wonder how many of the ignorant will see the film. One article quotes the director Philippe Diaz: “They are poor because we are rich.” Certainly seems to be an oversimplification, not literally true, but then what do I know about reaching the politically influential masses?

Originally some of us had hoped the film would teach a bit of Georgist economics. If that’s not possible in a mass market product, we hoped at least it would draw some links between control of resources and lack of access thereto. Perhaps it does, tho that doesn’t come out in what I’ve read thus far.  We shall see.

3 thoughts on “RSF's Poverty Film emerges; will it be useful?”

  1. Thanks for that link; I hadn’t seen a summary of the film before. We shall have a challenge to figure out how to use it to get people thinking seriously.

  2. How may the movie be useful? Gets people talking about poverty and then steering them to websites that offers “real” solutions to ending endemic poverty.

    I am a little puzzled why the documentary did not mention the name of Henry George. It offers few suggestions on how to “practically” end poverty. It is more an historical list of past wrongs from a socialist point-of-view. It says little about the reasons for poverty in the Northern Hemisphere – Paris, London, Los Angeles, etc. The implementation of a Land Value Tax (Location Value Tax) at the local level would help to stabilize land prices (housing costs) and create a base for affordable housing.

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