OUR WORLD
REVIEW
Poor
How the
Can Save Capitalism:
Rebuilding the Path to the Middle Class
by John Hope Bryant
J
ohn Hope Bryant observes that life is
about aspiration and opportunity, but
that without opportunity you lose hope;
and the most dangerous person in the
world is a person without hope. Although this observation focused on the poor and
disenfranchised in America’s inner cities and in
rural America, the statements can equally apply
around the world. We have become acutely aware
of the enormous divide between the top10% of the
world’s population that owns 86% of its wealth,
and the almost 50% of the population living in poverty. Poverty is not limited to one ethnic group nor
to inner cities; it cuts across all demographics and
there are more poor whites than any other group.
We have begun to demand accountability from a
financial and corporate system whose only objective is to generate more and more profits for the
few, because this model is unsustainable, is already imploding and will only get worse.
The cycle of poverty is enforced and perpetuated by
a broken system where money and credit have fled
to the suburbs, and loan sharks fill the vacuum; industry has decamped abroad and the only income
options to escape the ghetto appear to young people to be sports, music, or dealing drugs. Positive
role models and mentors are few and far between.
On the bright side, Bryant points out that the intelligence and an entrepreneurial spirit that are
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now directed into gangs and criminal activities,
are available to be channeled into positive directions. Having been a successful entrepreneur, he
is on a mission to provide a framework to enable
the poor to climb up the ladder to a sustainable
middle class that is good for them and good for the
country. He also points out that wealth is as much
a subjective state of the spirit as it is a r eflection of
income. That is why giving people hope and dignity are the highest priorities.
He has built an infrastructure of educational programs to teach financial literacy; brought branches of financial institutions back to the inner-cities
to enable residents to rejoin the US economy; and
he has provided crowd-funding forums wherein young people are exposed to entrepreneurial
thinking and given access to mentors to support
them in starting their own small businesses.
One could argue that it takes a recognized leader
and entrepreneur like Bryant to attract high profile partners and manifest such a structure for real
change, and the many thousands of lives he has
improved already are extremely encouraging. One
can only hope, however, that the example he has
provided will serve as a template and beta test for
rolling out across the country, as he hopes. Hope is
indeed his middle name.
Review by Miriam Knight