A Rich Nation, a Poor Continent

The cure for Africa’s ills is the one thing the continent lacks: money. According to Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, Africa’s health care problems could be effectively combated with an annual infusion of $25 billion dollars from the developed world, including $8 billion from the US. By bolstering the continent’s nearly non-existent health care programs, Sachs maintains that these funds would help curb the spread of AIDS and thus encourage economic development. Nevertheless, the US will only be contributing $2 billion this year to fight global poverty. Sachs therefore proposes that America’s richest individuals – who earn more annually than all the166 million people living in Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda, and Botswana – make up the difference using their recent tax cuts. Sachs asserts that such charity is both feasible and the moral imperative of America’s wealthy. Yet, in the face of such idealism, one has to wonder whether Africa’s plethora of problems – that also include corruption, demography, and infrastructure – can really be solved through cash alone. – YaleGlobal