Are there really a billion barefoot entrepreneurs, as the leaders of MFIs and the socially-minded business gurus seem to believe? Or is it just an optical illusion, stemming from a confusion about what we call an "entrepreneur"? There are more than a billion people who run their own farm or business, but most of them do this because they have no other options.
Are there really a billion barefoot entrepreneurs, as the leaders of MFIs and the socially-minded business gurus seem to believe? Or is it just an optical illusion, stemming from a confusion about what we call an "entrepreneur"? There are more than a billion people who run their own farm or business, but most of them do this because they have no other options.
Microcredit and other ways to help tiny businesses have an important role to play in the lives of the poor, because these tiny businesses will remain, perhaps for the foreseeable future, the only way many of the poor can manage to survive. But we are kidding ourselves if we think that these businesses can pave the way for a mass exit from poverty.
Are there really a billion barefoot entrepreneurs, as the leaders of MFIs and the socially-minded business gurus seem to believe? Or is it just an optical illusion, stemming from a confusion about what we call an "entrepreneur"? There are more than a billion people who run their own farm or business, but most of them do this because they have no other options.
Microcredit and other ways to help tiny businesses have an important role to play in the lives of the poor, because these tiny businesses will remain, perhaps for the foreseeable future, the only way many of the poor can manage to survive. But we are kidding ourselves if we think that these businesses can pave the way for a mass exit from poverty.