Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ When It Comes to Promoting Prosperity, Production Beats Consumption

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

According to this article, "Development philanthropists should focus on building the productive capacity of entire countries, to achieve large-scale economic transformation, rather than enabling a few individuals to increase their consumption." It's an interesting alternative to the Christensen 'disruptive innovation' model that focuses on developing markets. I like to think of the larger context in a smaller context: suppose you wanted to build a small town or village somewhere, in a low-population area. What would you need? How would you do it? People would need to be able to make a living somehow - that's the production side. Sure, they need markets to sell to, but if they can produce something useful, there are always markets. You want to produce higher-value products - sustenance and low-wage artisan enterprises won't sustain the town. So you need education, but education that is relevant to making a good living where you live. It's not simple.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Apr 30, 2024 08:49 a.m.

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