Ah, I actually read his article in Scientific American. I think he's on the right track. My only thing is that I think we should only offer development help and not force it on countries. I'm not sure where Sachs stands on that.

I think the solution to aiding those in need in democracy lies in trying to find a way to make it impossible to deny. People in democracies do not like to think of themselves as selfish. But we often rationalize that the poor are not really out there in large numbers and that those who are poor deserve to be and could magically stop being poor without any help if they just chose to. That's in our culture moreso than in any institution.
It doesn't help that most in the middle class feel that they are struggling themselves. Our social standards for the ownership of junk are amazing. People give when they think they can.
And that leads us to the problem of charities. Which charities are the right ones to give to? And how can we make charities more efficient and more well-focused when they are not in existence for profit, which is much easier to use for motivation than altruism.

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