Giving - how each of us can change the world - is a great book. It is a very easy read. It inspired me to start lending money via Kiva.org. On this website, you can loan small amounts of money to people all over the world. It finally seems that I was actually helping someone. All the money I have given to charity seems to have disappeared down a black hole, never to be seen again, never to actually do any good for anyone.
Now if you are a capitalist, as I would judge anyone who invests is, Kiva is the perfect investment for the future. Here you seem to be investing in people who want to be capitalists. If we want to keep the wealth we now have, I feel we must do something to spread around some wealth. Charity never seems to help. I have been giving to charity since I started to work in the late ‘60s. This is something like 40 years ago. I cannot point to any improvement in anyone’s life or any improvement for the poor of Toronto, where I live. In fact, we seem to have a lot more poor in Toronto now than there was 40 years ago.
Getting one great idea from a book is fantastic. What else can I say? If you believe in liberty, freedom and capitalism, then investing in potential capitalists in poor counties may be a very good investment indeed.
This micro-credit site is at http://www.kiva.org/. Bill Clinton’s site is at http://giving.clintonfoundation.org/. The book is on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Giving-How-Each-Change-World/dp/0307266745.
On the web, you can find both positive and negative reviews of this book. There are a lot of negative reviews. However, I read books all the time, often having 3 or 4 on the go at one time. I read mostly non-fiction (history, economics etc) and some sci-fi. Most of the negative reviews feel that the book is too filled with feel-good stories when there is so much misery around the world. Sorry, but I still feel that if a book gives you one great idea, it is worth it.
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