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Here's an interesting video,
oblique to my concept below, but relevant in some ways, about
changing the way we think about charity, or really, changing
the way we think and act with
scaffolding!
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pallotta_the_way_we_think_about_charity_is_dead_wrong.html
Over the past 4 years, one of the most important things to
study in the Philippines is
scaffolding. And in emerging
markets as well, as they are all reflective of poverty cycles,
freedoms and formality.
Lately, the idea of freedom and scaffolding have merged for me
in a very practical, if not difficult area.
I'll try to be brief because the concept I want to get across
is multi-faceted:
1) the desire for freedom is killing the dreams of many
2) accelerating complexity is creating extreme pressure on
freedom
3) too much freedom is impoverishing
Here's my example:
Person gets into trouble because of family emergency (you pick
it, it doesn't matter) in emerging world...
FREEDOM says they can take a loan out on their property
Lack of formal economy (places to get formal loans) leads them
into informal economy...
Since a LOT of people don't pay their bills in the formal
economy, people charge VERY high interest for money...
Person solves family emergency, but sets in course the
"sorry-sorry" cycle...where robbing from Peter to pay Paul
reigns...
Compound interest wipes out the equity, and ability to pay...
Person, who at first saved their family is consumed by the
freedom to do so
THIS IS A REGULAR OCCURRING EVENT IN EMERGING MARKETS and in
some cases the developed world as well, as we have seen in the
subprime mortgage crisis, where FREEDOM to purchase a home and
a sparsely constructed scaffold crushes under the weight of
complexity....
NOW, banks and financial institutions can't tell you what to
do,,,
I'm sure it's because of liability and of course the FREEDOM
TO FAIL, as well as succeed...
FEW PEOPLE talk about the FREEDOM TO FAIL, but all DREAM about
FREEDOM to SUCCEED.
The QUESTION:
Should people be FREE to FAIL, when failure is programmed into
the system and directly related to their inborn gaps?
Success requirements are huge when complexity accelerates.
People talk about resilience, which in and of itself is
largely inborn, and if not, EXTREMELY difficult to manifest
when times require it to be so. Antifragility, a concept made
popular in Nassem Taleb's recent book is essentially about
scaffolding density and frequency, although he doesn't mention
it per se.
If people are scaffolded to succeed, are in fact, they also
scaffolded to fail?
My sense is YES to both.
Unless the scaffold is dense enough, or appears with enough
frequency to make it robust and networked well in the moment
of pressure, it will collapse, it is fragile. |
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Helpful Hint: Promoting adequate scaffolding may
requires steps to limit freedoms, both to succeed and to
fail.... I'm not sure we are ready for that @BS, yet @F-L-O-W,
it's a necessary requirement. |
Action Step: In the Philippines, I've been
working on a system of income production, value preservation
and saving dreams. What happens when someone gets in over
their heads? Typically, the lender of last resort, just takes
the property and kicks the person out, the person loses all
the way around, resolving to focus on the positive help they
provided in saving a loved one with an operation, putting a
child through college or just providing support/scaffolding
when needed at a cost that eventually bankrupts them.
I've outlined a program to help these people and it involves
several steps:
1. Identifying outside capital, which seeks risk-related
returns.
2. Recreating the person's income through the addition of the
sari-sari store without recreating the sorry-sorry cycle.
3. Managing the situation closely to be sure that success
requirements are met and the dream is saved, although
ownership changes.
These three steps LIMIT the freedom to succeed, and scaffold
failure, limiting the freedom to fail. It's not for everyone,
but we can save the dream in most cases, that is to live in
one's own domicile, even if the ownership changes for the life
of the dream. If you are interested in supporting this kind of
"charity" and profit mix, and the study of limited freedoms
and why we should limit a person's freedom to fail, contact me
at "generate at msn.com. |
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