Disclaimer: Do everything in your power to read this blog, despite any amount of economical jargon you may encounter, because I think a book on economics just changed my life.
Ok, check this out.
I’m reading The End of Poverty, Economic Possibilities for Our Time, by Jeffrey Sachs. The book is pretty reader friendly, but only if you’re really interested in economics. I didn’t realize that until my mom and I were having a conversation about how I’m near-sighted and don’t need to wear contacts when I read. Our goofy conversation led to me holding the book about a half inch from my face, demonstrating I could still read it clearly. I just so happened to read this sentence to her:
The fifth category of the differential diagnosis involves patterns of governance beyond the specifics of the budget process and detailed economic policies.
She laughed and said she couldn’t believe I was reading that. I understood her comment to mean that she couldn’t believe I was capable of reading a book placed so close to my face.
Apparently she was referring to the content.
It never dawned on me that not everyone on the the planet enjoys this topic–namely, college drop-outs.
But check this out. Today I read the author’s account of how he intervened in helping Poland return to Europe after the Soviet-era. Poland had about $40 billion of foreign debt, and even though it had a great new plan for moving forward, no one knew if Poland could really survive with so much debt hanging over its head.
So here’s the scene: there’s a big razzamarooza with a bunch of political leaders in Poland, with some US representatives in attendance, to congratulate the country on its new plan. The first speaker was Bob Dole, who gave a nice speech about how the US supported Poland’s courage to change and move toward stability. Warm fuzzies, good wishes, etc.
Then Jeffrey Sachs (the book’s author), gets up to the podium and basically without the proper authority, proceeds to cancel Poland’s debt, without even flinching. I was seriously laughing at his speech.
Are you still reading? Check this out:
I want to remind you of what Senator Dole just said. Senator Dole said that the American people are with you. I have no doubt that that’s true. We Americans understand that after forty-five years of domination, Poland today marks one of the most important and positive events in modern history. Americans will be with you; Europe is with you. So I’m sure Senator Dole agrees that Poland’s debt should just be canceled. There’s no way that the Soviet-era debt should in any way risk the freedom of the Polish people.
OMG, right? But get this, he’s not even done there:
Your debt crisis is over. All you have to do is send a postcard to your creditors: ‘Thank you very much, but now we’re in the age of freedom and democracy, and we can’t pay you the Soviet-era debts.’ Don’t think about it again; it’s done.
Just like that. Brilliant.
Obviously this has huge implications for our world, and the attainability of truly ending poverty, but I can’t get over how many personal spiritual and emotional implications this has. It’s like we walk around trying to move forward with life, but we owe billions of dollars in guilt and pain and shame and pride to things from our destructive past, so we assume that we’ll just carry it around forever, or buckle under the stress of it.
And then, “someone” just comes along and is like, “Oh hey Julie, btw, you’re crazy for thinking you have to worry about any of that stuff. You’ve moved on, you don’t owe anything to anybody.”
Oh, ok.
I think that’s what grace and peace means.
Grace and peace, FTW!
