Taking The Wrong Key

How many times does the fact that a well-meaning program actually does, in fact, do more harm than good need to be documented before said well-meaning program is abolished?  Good intentions are nice and all, but why do people persist in believing that a program must be good because it is intended to be good?  When does the result of the program start to matter? 

Aid to poor countries is the immediate matter raising this question, but the problem is general.  I recently read Dambisa Moyo’s Dead Aid, an argument that aid to Africa has not only not helped Africa, but actually hurt Africa, that the best thing Aid Donors can do is stop giving Aid, and that if Africa wants to actually become wealthier, it needs to implement the usual array of policies which actually, you know, make countries wealthier.  Reviewing this rather quick read presents a bit of a problem; the thing which most surprised me about the book is that there is absolutely nothing in this book that I haven't read many times before in many other books.  This one is neither a particularly good nor a particularly bad example of this type of book—indeed, these books all say the same thing.  This one is probably not quite as good as Collier’s The Bottom Billion, and not as heavy on details as William Easterly’s books, but is a better quick summary of the magnitude of the problem than many others.  If you meet anyone arguing that Rich Countries have a moral obligation to give more aid to Africa, then you can tell them that Bono should have stuck to singing and that this is a book said person might want to read.  If someone isn’t convinced by this book, then you can suggest any of the myriad of other books arguing the same thing.  And if the wealth of all those books put together isn’t convincing, then give it up—you are dealing with someone for whom intentions trump experience.

Don’t get me wrong; I could quibble with many places in Moyo’s book (e.g., she is a little bit too enamored with microfinance in general and the Grameen Bank in specific), but the general impression I had when reading it is that this was all pretty obvious; the fact that the book has a market despite being obvious is really rather sad.

And since I don't want to end on a sad note, here is a happy song.  Chosen because I just got Live at Leeds from Amazon ($5), put in on a CD and heard it in my truck on the way to work this morning.  It feels like Summer listening to The Who with the windows rolled down on what promises to be the start of a sunny Memorial Day Weekend.