Market Based Solutions To Solve Global Poverty Case Study

Market-based solutions to solving global poverty are inspired by the interrelated concepts of capitalism and neoliberalism. Such solutions are the dominant discourse in approaching global poverty, being endorsed by significant international actors including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Theoretically, market-based solutions could potentially solve global poverty through their core aim of boosting a State’s productivity and overall wealth. However in practice, market-based solutions are not plausible solutions to global poverty because such solutions are inherently flawed for three reasons. Firstly, neoliberalism in particular is more of a political ploy aimed to assert the dominance of the West and the wealthy, rather

For example in the USA, the top 0.1% of income earners increased their share of the national income from 2% in 1978 to 6% by 1999 when neoliberalism was most prominent (Harvey 2005, p. 16). Neoliberalism is a political ploy as it was forced onto developing nations through Structural Adjustment Programs. These were programs imposed by the creditors of developing nations including the World Bank and International Monetary Fund due to growing amounts of debt (Saul & Leys 1999, p. 17). SAPs have been seen as imperialist and a political project to transfer power to the wealthy (Bernstein 1990, p. 23). This is because it involves transferring knowledge created in the economically developed Global North to the economically developing countries in the Global South (Gamage 2015, p.

19).This has led to Sub-Saharan Africa becoming dependant on the Global North to purchase their primary produce (Galbraith 2002, p. 25 cited in Gamage 2015, p. 9). This is problematic given that Africa also faces competition from Asia and Latin America in these industries which forces African farmers to further lower their costs which could include lowering wages for their workers. Employing such measures has led to negative rates of economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. For example, in 1975, regional per capital GNP stood at 17.6% of the world average and this had dropped to 10.5% in 1999 (Ferguson 2006, p. 9). Therefore even the core aim of neoliberalism which is achieving economic growth has not been achieved. It has been suggested that there has been economic growth since then but even if Sub-Saharan Africa is growing as a region, lowering wages means that the poorest will not receive any benefit from a better economy.Therefore, if neoliberalism is considered a political tool used to restore the wealth of the bourgeoisie then it inherently cannot be a viable tool