Poverty Is a Moral Problem
Development economist William Easterly says too much aid undermines the rights of the poor. William Easterly, professor of economics at New York University, is one of the most prominent iconoclasts in the field of international aid. In 2006 he published White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good. Kent Annan ( Following Jesus Through the Eye of the Needle; After Shock ) talked with him on a frigid Manhattan day over hot green tea the day after the launch of his new book, The Tyranny of Experts: Economists, Dictators, and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor (2014) . What are the "forgotten rights of the poor"? The rights of the poor should be the same as the rights of the rich: the core, inalienable rights that started with the language of the Declaration of Independence, including the idea that governments exist by the consent of the governed. There is an ongoing debate around the world between the a