We learn to fly by looking up, not down. Cheetahs cannot teach us about flight. Only birds can.
We can know everything about ground travel and remain clueless about flight.
If we want to defy gravity, we must study those who defy gravity. We must copy them; adopt their mannerisms; mirror their environment.
We cannot achieve prosperity by studying the destitute. We might learn what not to do, but that is not enough. Experts on poverty cannot teach prosperity.
Poverty as Disease
Medical doctors who study poverty examine it like a disease. Every disease has a cause. Find the cause; cure the disease.
Understanding disease process leads to treatment aimed at cure. This approach has produced tremendous success for medicine.
Health promoters still criticize doctors for emphasizing diagnosis and treatment. Patients can be disease-free but unhealthy. Doctors now promote health, too, but it required a change in focus.
Anti-poverty activists seem to think that expertise about poverty will fix poverty. They start in the wrong spot. They see poverty as an abnormal state arising from some noxious cause or disordered process.
Wealth, in a middle class sense, is common in North America. But it is not normal. Continue reading “Social Determinants of Wealth”
