Tom's Shoes: it matters to the shoemakers you put out of business!

This morning's Wall Street Journal has a seminal book review about "Start Something That Matters", the story of Blake Mycoskie and Tom's Shoes. You know, the good folks who when you buy a pair of shoes, give a pair of shoes to someone, somewhere, somehow. This accomplishes two goals- it assuages the shoe buyers' guilt, and destroys the free market industry of countries that need it so desperately.

Worse though, is that this review and book may encourage more of this behavior. The particular behavior I would like to zero in on here is the one that encourages rich people (all of us) to go "do something" that we think "they" (the poor people) need. And we do this usually without ever asking "them" what they want or need. That is a problem! But somehow, these fair haired children either don't understand, or worse, choose willingly to use the poor to achieve their personal satisfaction.
Africa and Haiti are particularly full of foreign people who fly in and impart free things without ever reading the first book about the culture, let alone make the first observation about the country. Free shoes, free water, free food, free health care, free housing, free education, and free advice. A US AID officer once bemoaned to me that he wished all of the NGO groups in Uganda would just go away so that a normal society could exist.
I agree- but it won't stop, for the same reason the March of Dimes did not stop after polio was eradicated. Too many people make too much money and feel too good about their largesse for it to just end.
Too true to be good? It is...but getting people to actually admit it is difficult at best, and usually ends up blowing up in your face at worst.
Here's some advice- quit buying shoes and wear out the ones you have helping people have dignity without abject charity.
And start in your own neighborhood! The ability to buy an airline ticket and get a visa does not make you an ambassador.