To The Poor, Avoiding Idleness And Boredom Can Be More Important Than Food And Shelter

From "Banerjee and Duflo: Remembering to respect the preferences of the poor" by J P London on The Economist Free Exchange Blog:

The life of the rural poor is extremely boring, with repetitive back-breaking tasks interrupted by periods of enforced idleness; it is far removed from Marie-Antoinettish idylls of Arcadia. As the authors [Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo] remark, villages do not have movie theatres, concert halls, places to sit and watch interesting strangers go by and frequently not even a lot of work. This may sound rather demeaning to the poor, like Marx’s comment about “the idiocy of rural life”.

But it is important to understand because, as the authors remark, “things that make life less boring are a priority for the poor”. They tell the story of meeting a Moroccan farmer, Oucha Mbarbk. They ask him what would he do if he had a bit more money. Buy some more food, came the reply. What would he do if he had even more money? Buy better, tastier food. “We were starting to feel very bad for him and his family when we noticed a television, a parabolic antenna and a DVD player.” Why had he bought all this if he didn’t have enough money for food? “He laughed and said ‘Oh, but television is more important than food.’”

Nutritionists and aid donors often forget this. To them, it is hard to imagine anything being more important than food.

Read the entire article here.