Easterly vs. Sachs: The big push Deja Vu

One of our Bulletin contributors,  Warbug,  already covers the “Easterly vs. Sachs” debate in a previous commentary. Warburg does not think Bill Easterly to be constructive in his new book "The White Men’s Burden". I however think that Professor Jeffrey Sachs is even worse.

Professor Jeffrey Sachs has a lot of big plans. He has a long  “Checklist for Development Economics” that coveres every technical details on how to lift a country out of poverty, but as Arkady Volsky (a  former Soviet official) rightly points out: “People say that Russia should become like Sweden. But the problem is that we don’t have enough Swedes.”

Professor Sachs tells us that a mere $3 per year would help save an African from Malaria, but as Bill Easterly points out: “Doesn't he have a little curiosity about why this easy problem wasn't solved with some of the $568 billion (in today's dollars) in foreign aid given to Africa over the last 43 years?” “What about the World Bank studies in Guinea, Cameroon, Uganda and Tanzania, which estimated that 30 to 70 percent of government drugs disappeared into the black market rather than reaching the patients?”

I absolutely applaud Professor Sachs’ efforts in helping poor people. His plan is absolutely beautiful. But what I can see is that the money he raises will never reach the poor in need. The huge amount of money will simply go into the personal pockets of local corrupted officials. I don't disagree that sometimes we should have beautiful dreams, but don't dream too much, particularly when you are in your day job.

References:
Bill Easterly: The Big Push Deja Vu (PDF file)
A modest proposal (Easterly's review on Sachs' book "The end of poverty"), Washington Post
Sachs' reply  ,  Washington Post