Re: Micro Lending?
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I think it's a great idea. It's a kind of capital-charity as I see it. It requires people to donate their time, or take very low pay, for acting as the Loan Officers. But it's not just giving money away. It's suppying Capital to people who will make good use of it. I think what it amounts to is the reestablishment of the economic Base for primitive undeveloped economies. It's that Economic Base that gets wiped out when more advanced "imperialist" type Economic forces swoop in on underdeveloped ones.
Natural market forces wipe out something right now, which may have hidden long term value for the overall market. Once wiped out, the market cannot easily restore them without a charity component to get them restarted. It's a little like destruction of an ecosystem causing extinction of rare species which have no value at the time but which somewhere down the road may prove very valuable. Unfortunately, once extinct, the species is gone.
PairTheBoard
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Absolutely...a bit like a catalyst for a chemical reaction, a program like this lowers the "activation energy" for potentially beneficial contributions.
But is there any risk of scam beyond the usual risk involved with lending? I poked around the site, and it seems legit, but then again that is the hallmark of a good scam...not trying to be cynical here, just realistic.
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Yea. It's vulnerable to corruption. Another reason why it's difficult for it to happen naturally. Corruption kills it. A big component of the Charity aspect is Integrity. A good Loan Officer is normally getting paid as much for his Integrity as for his business sense.
From what I understand, the guy that started doing this put up his own money. He had already made a fortune as a venture capitalist.
PairTheBoard
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