MovieChat Forums > Living on One Dollar (2013) Discussion > Micro-loans

Micro-loans

posted 10 years ago by chaosroach
4 replies | jump to latest

It seemed like the Grameen micro-loan banks had the biggest impact on the people in the film, with loans over $100 (unless this project was secretly a commercial for that bank). If a loan was used to fix-up a house, I don't see why a loan couldn't also have been used for the medicine that guy's wife needed to live or towards the stomach parasite medicine for the film maker.

One other thing, there wasn't really a need for these guys to leave the country in order to encounter real poverty, it's happening in America, right in their backyard:

http://rankingamerica.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/the-u-s-ranks-2nd-in-child-poverty-2/
"According to UNICEF, 23.1% of American children under the age of seventeen live in poverty, which makes the United States rank second out of thirty-five economically advanced countries ranked in that category. Romania ranks first, with 25.5% of children living in poverty."

Comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable

[–] VanBooter 10 years ago

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1736049/

Americans living on $3 a day can only afford to buy junk food. Good DOC

[–] Spookyman 9 years ago

According to UNICEF, 23.1% of American children under the age of seventeen live in poverty, which makes the United States rank second out of thirty-five economically advanced countries ranked in that category. Romania ranks first, with 25.5% of children living in pove

There is absolute poverty and relative poverty. American has poverty in a relative sense, which is the statistic you are are quoting, but this is not the same as the sort of poverty seen in this film. Relative poverty is is to with wealth levels a certain way below the median for that society. Thus by definition America will always have relative poverty (as will all rich countries). But poor in America is well-off compared with genuinely poor countries. Very few Americans, if any, live on a dollar a day. The few that might such as the homeless usually have other issues too, such as mental health issues or drug addiction. Whereas in a country like Guatamala extreme poverty is a normal part of life. There really is no comparison.

[–] Portlis 8 years ago

I'm glad someone around here is smart enough to understand this. Comparing the two as the OP did is insane.

[–] irwinbooks 9 years ago

I have family and friends who have lived in real, Third World poverty, and they eventually struggled beyond it to reach middle class America, Canada, Taiwan, etc. But some of my family members and friends' family members also died from such poverty.

They weren't lazy or stupid. A flood, a drought, a medical crisis, it will kill you pretty quick if you don't have money or resources.

Great film. Except the part they said it's so complicated to help people. It's not. People need food, shelter and medicine. Once they get that, they become extremely productive and will improve their ability to consistently secure their needs with now security net.