Ted Talk Reaction Paper about Paul Collier, “The Bottom Billion”
TED Talk Reaction 2
Listening to the second TED talk I was very surprised on what Paul Collier was saying. Paul Collier mentioned the “bottom billion” which indicates a billion people have been stuck living in economies that been stationary for 40 years; people are trapped in poor countries. Collier wants to develop a plan to aid them, but I after listening to his plan I do necessarily agree with everything he stated. How do we hope to export what we don’t even have for ourselves? He mentions the in order for the plan to work the government must show compassion. It’s hard to for people to show compassion help others when mainly they are just focused on helping themselves. People have to have the same goals in order for this to work. He mentioned that the United States would have to reverse its security and trade policy. It worked in the 1940s because the government was not as strict as it now in 2015. Today I believe there is more surplus than shortage, and self-interest only operates in the area of society where there is profit potential. So the profit potential does not recognize the bottom billion. He failed to mention taxes. I know taxes is a big part of our economy and would like to know more on how taxes would affect his plan, enlightened self interest.