Technology Will Not Save Africa

And neither will public-private partnerships. Charities that fund research to benefit developing nations are claiming that public-private partnerships aimed at developing new technologies are needed to help the food shortages in Africa. Well, here’s an example of a public-private initiative that is causing at least one family to starve in the name of technology: An Ethiopian subsistence farmer decided to switch over to growing crops for biofuel, and now he does not have food to feed his family.

Africa needs less meddling from its governments. It needs to allow hard workers to save so that they can invest in the future. Voluntary assistance from charities may be beneficial, but calls for public-private partnerships are wrong-headed. And technology, in and of itself, can not advance economic growth, as Bob Murphy showed in his Sushi Economy.

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8:56 am on November 10, 2008