Are We Fostering Financial Exclusion?
Far from alleviating poverty through financial inclusion, aid agencies, governments, and philanthrocapitalist donors are inadvertently supporting financial exclusion of the poorest in society by preventing them from using their preferred, and often only, means of payment … cash.
The richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, can apparently think of nothing better to do with his vast $139 billion fortune than spend it on space exploration. In a high-tech world growing more lopsided with inequity and social injustice by the day, this could be considered more than a little eccentric. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof was not alone in politely suggesting that Bezos could put his money to better use in the today’s world rather than tomorrow’s by, say, making primary education universal worldwide, thereby single-handedly ending global illiteracy and changing the world forever.