Economia

(Aff. Link)

Although I’ve actually finished Jeffrey Sachs recent (relatively, at least) book, The End of Poverty, I don’t think I’m anywhere near the mental state required to write a full review on it. So… this post will just contain my initial review of the book.

Now, I aim to make all my posts complete within 400 or so words, so don’t expect a lengthy critique of The End of Poverty. Anyway, here it is.

I’ll be honest and say outright that I found the book to be a very dry and perhaps even unemotional textbook on how humanity can end extreme poverty by 2025. Even when Sachs attempts to illustrate his points through his extensive experience as an advisor to poor governments and head of Columbia University’s Earth Institute, I found that there was little that I could classify as humour or wittiness.

Of course, I would be the first to admit that the topic itself - poverty and its long-awaited eradication - is intrinsically stale. Dryness aside, Jeffrey Sachs has written a compelling manual on how governments should “think big” and fulfill their obligations towards ending poverty. Detailed points, buffetted by well-researched facts, provide most of the necessary substantiation.

However, while Sachs is highly critical and lucid on many points, including what should work towards the economic development of the world’s poorest countries, he seems to write based on sheer idealism when it comes to the various problems that we will face in getting the engine started and maintained. As the Economist has noted, the End of Poverty is

…briefly marred by some pretty soft-headed stuff about the evils of unilateralism, the war in Iraq and the moral and intellectual failings of the Bush administration. Mr Sachs states these views as though they follow from his hard-learned economic wisdom—which of course, whether right or wrong, they do not. On the other hand, Mr Sachs is far too kind to anti-globalisation activists, applauding their fervour and conviction while gently disagreeing with their policy ideas, which in fact he regards as ignorant and ruinous (why not extend the same courtesy to the Bush administration?).

So, how should one judge the content of this book? Well, I would rate the book’s detailed and perhaps even, fervent, description of world poverty very highly, but drop that rating to a far more modest level when considering the various prescriptions (ranging from the practical to the almost ridiculous) Jeffrey Sachs suggests.

However, as this is just my initial review of the book, I have no intention of giving an overall rating just yet.

For more reviews of Jeffrey Sachs’ The End of Poverty, visit metacritic.com.

You can purchase the book, The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time, through Amazon.com (aff. link).