Private companies could continue to sell exactly the kinds of insurance they are currently willing to sell (catastrophic care with a strict cap, indexed weather insurance, and so forth). But for the time being, the government should pay a part of insurance premiums for the poor.

there is a clear tension between the spirit of microcredit and true entrepreneurship, which is usually associated with taking risks and, no doubt, occasionally failing.

Many parents in rich countries don’t need to think in quite these terms because they have other ways to deal with their waning years—there is Social Security, there are mutual funds and retirement plans, and there is health insurance, public or private.

A year’s supply of the fish sauce cost $7 USD PPP, and for a self-employed male, the yearly gain in earnings was $46 USD PPP—an excellent investment.

poverty is not just a lack of money; it is not having the capability to realize one’s full potential as a human being.10

The Life You Can Save, Singer

There is no steep jump in income once people start eating enough. This suggests that the very poor benefit more from eating extra calories than the less poor.

Most of the poor do not have a salary, let alone a retirement plan that deducts automatically from it. It means making decisions about things that come with a lot of small print when you cannot even properly read the large print.

Right after soaps became available in an area, the number of births would drop sharply; moreover, women who had children in those areas named their children after the main characters in the soap.31