I think the fundamental problem in that village, which would not be helped much by skipping the party and saving, is that because they’re mostly unemployed there just isn’t enough money.
If they cancelled the party and all saved enough to avoid starvation for the rest of the month, I bet they still wouldn’t be able to save much for the longer term. They’d starve less but also have less social fun. It might be better, it might be worse, but it wouldn’t stop them being poor.
I do agree that there’s a similarity between their situation and that of insufficiently-saving middle-class communities. I just don’t buy the “sufficient to keep the entire village poor” bit; I think what keeps the village poor is the fact that so many are unemployed and (I’m guessing) those who are employed mostly don’t have very lucrative jobs.
I think the fundamental problem in that village, which would not be helped much by skipping the party and saving, is that because they’re mostly unemployed there just isn’t enough money.
If they cancelled the party and all saved enough to avoid starvation for the rest of the month, I bet they still wouldn’t be able to save much for the longer term. They’d starve less but also have less social fun. It might be better, it might be worse, but it wouldn’t stop them being poor.
I do agree that there’s a similarity between their situation and that of insufficiently-saving middle-class communities. I just don’t buy the “sufficient to keep the entire village poor” bit; I think what keeps the village poor is the fact that so many are unemployed and (I’m guessing) those who are employed mostly don’t have very lucrative jobs.