| > There are more complicated reasons for child morality than lack of soap The most important one being a lack of information. Except in the poorest slums, where people can't afford soap. If fact, they may be wasting their money on stuff which increases infant mortality. Infant formula may be marketed as being healthier than mother's milk, but without proper sanitation it's much worse. > Children die because, almost universally, someone has strangled the market that would otherwise be allocating soap towards their rooms. It's ridiculous to say that, unless you know of some place in the world where soap is insanely expensive. They'll die because their families were poor. The ultimate causes of poverty are complex, and probably relate to dysfunctional states which (among other things) don't create functional markets. But to say that the ultimate problem is "not enough markets" is silly. Would public education help? Does their government need to enforce anti-corruption laws? You can't look at a government which does everything wrong, and say "the big problem is, they don't allow markets to flourish". But some things (like immunization) can be done cheaply (if somewhat inefficiently) by something that's not a market. |