Near the end of the 19th century, the IMF and the World Bank sought to develop the Third World and rid it of its poverty through liberalization and structural adjustment programs. By using debt as leverage, the IMF and World Bank issued loans to developing nations with the conditionality that they would restructure their economies and political systems to reflect fiscal discipline, financial and trade liberalization, public expenditure cutbacks, and other reforms promoted by the Washington Consensus and neoliberal thinking. In Planet of the Slum, however, Davis argues that these very institutions meant to alleviate global poverty have in fact, worsened the situation, leading to, what he describes as a “surplus of humanity” living in the slums
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Reduction of social safety nets was coupled with free market policies that dragged the economies of the Third World onto the global market, forcing its underdeveloped industries—a result of colonial rule—to compete against industrialized nations. As the First World heavily subsidizes its agricultural products, rural farmers of the global south were uncut and unable to make a living. This led to famine, death, and displacement of millions of subsistence peasants in Asia and Africa. Thus, rural peasants were driven away from the countryside and into the overflowing city slums, resulting in “unskilled, unprotected, and low-wage service industries and trade” (175). While the IMF and World Bank attempted to upgrade these slums, their efforts ultimately and their intervention merely relieved the state of its duty to address the issue.
Davis argues that the informal economy of the slum world is not, as Hernando de Soto claims, a rising …show more content…
Child labor is one of the most important sectors of informal urban economies. While domestic work is the largest sector of urban child labor, there are many working under cruel conditions in the factories. Varanasi, the Hindu sacred city, is the “world capital of enslaved and exploited children,” employing over 200,000 children under the age of 14 in its carpet production (187). Although there have been attempts to curb these atrocities with the ratification of The Convention on the Rights of the Child—signed by all excluding the United States and Somalia—such reforms are difficult to implement in practice (186). Rickshaw drivers are another particularly vulnerable population exploited within the informal sector. They are over 3 million rickshaw drivers in Asia, making it one of the biggest industries after garment production. There is little more than a “’human animals’” used to replace mule and horse drawn transportation. In addition to sever working conditions that often result in heart attacks or tuberculosis, most pullers, at least in Shanghai, are lucky if they earn ten cents per day. The realities of the rickshaw driver contrast de
Reduction of social safety nets was coupled with free market policies that dragged the economies of the Third World onto the global market, forcing its underdeveloped industries—a result of colonial rule—to compete against industrialized nations. As the First World heavily subsidizes its agricultural products, rural farmers of the global south were uncut and unable to make a living. This led to famine, death, and displacement of millions of subsistence peasants in Asia and Africa. Thus, rural peasants were driven away from the countryside and into the overflowing city slums, resulting in “unskilled, unprotected, and low-wage service industries and trade” (175). While the IMF and World Bank attempted to upgrade these slums, their efforts ultimately and their intervention merely relieved the state of its duty to address the issue.
Davis argues that the informal economy of the slum world is not, as Hernando de Soto claims, a rising …show more content…
Child labor is one of the most important sectors of informal urban economies. While domestic work is the largest sector of urban child labor, there are many working under cruel conditions in the factories. Varanasi, the Hindu sacred city, is the “world capital of enslaved and exploited children,” employing over 200,000 children under the age of 14 in its carpet production (187). Although there have been attempts to curb these atrocities with the ratification of The Convention on the Rights of the Child—signed by all excluding the United States and Somalia—such reforms are difficult to implement in practice (186). Rickshaw drivers are another particularly vulnerable population exploited within the informal sector. They are over 3 million rickshaw drivers in Asia, making it one of the biggest industries after garment production. There is little more than a “’human animals’” used to replace mule and horse drawn transportation. In addition to sever working conditions that often result in heart attacks or tuberculosis, most pullers, at least in Shanghai, are lucky if they earn ten cents per day. The realities of the rickshaw driver contrast de