Why the Poor Stay Poor
This is Nicholas Kristof, writing on the need for a savings revolution:
One of the ugly secrets of global poverty is that a good deal of suffering is caused not only by low incomes but also by bad spending decisions. Research suggests that the world’s poorest families (typically the men in those families) spend about 20 percent of their incomes on a combination of alcohol, cigarettes, prostitution, soft drinks and extravagant festivals.
Virtually all the micro lending is to women, not men. This post may help explain why.
I believe the lenders uniformly discovered that women are better lending risks than men.
I could explain this to you guys, but I’m not sure you would like to hear it.