Letters to the Editor
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to Canuckistan Bob
Usually I agree with you, but what specific microcredit program have you dealt with?
I don't know what it's like to be a borrower of microcredit, of course, but on Kiva, there are men as well as women borrowing. Most of the requested loans were in the couple hundred to 1,000 dollar range, and they collected a number of lenders to lend to a specific individual. (For example, I--along with 39 other people--loaned $25 to a man in Beirut. He wanted $1,000 to buy hookahs to expand his tea shop business, and was going to take the proceeds from that to give his son the start-up money to run a paint store. I don't know what sort of bureaucratic hurdles he had to jump through in Lebanon or what kind of business plan he had to write, but that's was enough for me to know to take the risk. And the risk is to me, the lender. I may not get my $25 back. The thing is, I can afford to write off a $25 debt if the business fails, and I can afford to loan $25 without expecting interest.)
Do I think this will save the world? No. But it can give one person a leg up, allow him/her to keep his/her pride of not taking charity, and keep that person from having to resort to third-world loan sharks in order to start or improve their businesses.