Extreme Welfare Shows
June 24th, 2008[ General ]
Paul Polak was on The Hour a few weeks back. From what little I saw, I like Paul and his company D-Rev. The quick story, most major innovation and design is aimed at the wealthiest 10% of our population. D-Rev is “Design for the other 90%”.
One point Paul which struck a cord with me was when discussing the treadle pump and it’s total cost of $25. He said that one of their goals is NOT to give things for free. You can’t gift people out of poverty, hand outs are not a way to end poverty but a way to create a welfare system. Instead they require that individuals invest and pay for a pump themselves. If people aren’t willing to invest $25, it likely doesn’t bring them enough value. “Virtually everything we do is designed to give a 300 percent net investment, and that way, they can leverage up”.
It got me thinking about my kids and allowances. I remember hearing the author of a book called Young Bucks say that giving your children an allowance was a great way to raise welfare children. Bold statement I’m not sure Paul would disagree with.
It also got me thinking about extreme welfare shows like Extreme Makeover. Everytime I see them tear down a rat infested shack and replace it with a multi-million dollar mansion complete with grounds, pools, and fancy gadgets to maintain, I wonder how insane a leap that would require. To go from the human and capital cost of not maintaining a one room shack to maintaining an estate. Who can do that? Someone should start a show where they return to these homes a year later to see how all those gadgets are holding up.
The people on these shows are no doubt in need of help but when it comes to long-term, sustainable results, I’ll take Paul’s help anyday over ABC’s. Paul and D-Rev are eye opening as it’s way too easy for us in business to get lost staring at the people with the big wallets.