Women, microcredit and capability in rural India
Access full-text files
Date
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
When capitalism is good, it is very, very good; when it is bad, it is horrid. To put it another way: There are two totally different styles of capitalism—one life-affirming, the other abusive. We don’t commonly recognize this, but there are two contrasting ways to use neutral tools such as free markets, credit and entrepreneurship. It’s like the difference between love-making and rape. The equipment’s the same, the impact on human life is very different. Consider the idea of extending credit to the poor. One style of doing so is predatory…. [A] busive lenders prey on the unsophisticated, using hidden charges, skyhigh interest rates, confusing paperwork and sleight-of-hand salesmanship…. There’s another way, as humane as the predators are inhumane. It’s called microcredit lending. And it represents all that is best about capitalism, all that is life-affirming and world changing. -Minneapolis Star Tribune, January 27, 1997