A Rhetorical Analysis Of The Bottom Billion By Paul Collier

Around the world right now, one billion people are trapped in poor or failing countries. How can we help them? Economist Paul Collier lays out a bold, compassionate plan for closing the gap between rich and poor. Paul Collier’s book The Bottom Billion shows what is happening to the poorest people in the world, and offers ideas for opening up opportunities to all. Author Howard French writes an article “Banishing Congo’s Ghosts” that is describing the poverty and violence in the bottom billion, specifically in the Congo. French considers different approaches to end the continuous vicious cycle of violence and poverty.
In Collier’s the bottom billion he discusses the political and economic problems of the very poorest countries. This being,
Collier argued that civil wars in developing countries can leave long lasting legacies of poverty, violence and corruption. The economic costs of a war often continue well after the war ends. Corrupt officials can flood informal markets with cheap military weapons. Armed groups may use violence and extortion to make a living. These effects can last for decades. This civil war and continual violence is exactly what French is discussing in his article. Collier outlines one of the solutions to this is to help financially and to help with some kind of economic stabilization via the financial assistance. In lecture, McCarty discusses how there really is lack of efforts in these countries because we label them “failed states.” The countries termed as a failure scares businesses and other investors or any kind of aid. French discusses this exact scenario in his article. After decades of misrule observers had given up on Congo and its population, by 2012, of 65 million. They even argued that the country, once a possession of King Leopold II of Belgium, no longer meaningfully exists as a state and that the international community should stop pretending that it does. This is exactly
However, building on this will require more security developments. French moves on to say that the ultimate step toward a coherent Congolese state is the provision of services and the collection of taxes. The Congo clearly does not have experience with either. The population relies in large part on foreign aid and the delivery of services by a huge patchwork of foreign charities, and this is from those that are willing to aid a “failed state.” However well intentioned, French states that this has become part of the problem. Ultimately under this system, the Congolese governments have little incentive to actually govern. In conclusion, French believes this pattern can only be broken if the West begins to demand performance from the corrupt and atrophied Congolese state itself. This will require as much discipline from investors as it does from the recipients. Capital has to be gradually moved away from yearly stipends of life support to longer-term plans for real development, with binding expectations and benchmarks. This is what French believes to be the solution. Collier argued that bad governance can impact development in poor countries with increased debt, it allows corruption to increase, it enriches the upper class, and essentially diverts resources to