Real problems need real solutions

Fighting poverty, protecting the environment and reaching healthcare to the poor (if we, for the moment, ignore ending conflicts, armed and unarmed alike) seem to be the overriding priorities of politicians and think tanks across the world. Indeed, they are noble goals.

The problem is the approach which mainstream intellectuals and experts propose to achieve those goals. It turns out that unshackled international trade - for example, a successful Doha free trade agreement - is the top choice of economists and think tanks, some of which masquerade as expert environmental protection groups.

This is hardly surprising because making money, more money than normally possible, is the top priority of mainstream economists. The logic seems to be that money will take care of all the problems. Of course, money can fight poverty and reach healthcare to the poor. But will the money earned from free international trade be used by those who possess it do so? Had that been the case, close to 1 billion people across the world would not be living in abject poverty. And had that been the case, three decades of World Trade Organization-dictated economic rules would have reached healthcare to most of the world's poor by now.