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Life and Debt
2001 · Film · documentary · 86 min
Directed by Stephanie Black
Life and Debt is a 2001 American documentary film that examines the economic and social situation in Jamaica, and specifically how the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank's structural adjustment policies have impacted the island.
3 positive1 neutralfrom 4 commenters
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4 comments on Hacker News
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_and_Debt
It would be good to find a review (positive or negative) of that movie by economists, not movie critics. Until then, call me a skeptic.
I highly recommend anyone who doesn't know anything about how the IMF interacts with poor countries to watch this documentary called "Life and Debt"[0] which is about how the IMF basically destroyed Jamaica's economy.
Basically, long story short, the IMF will immediately tell a country that they cannot bolster their local companies with tariffs or other legal means, meaning that local food industries (in the example of Jamaica) and numerous other sorts of local businesses immediately go bankrupt due to competition, and joblessness soars.
So the IMF will immediately take advantage of a country and kill basically any law that they have to try and bolster their local economy, in the need for the 'greater good'. Gorramn Tau.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_and_Debt
Is this the primary force behind a change such as this?
After watching the documentary called 'Life and Debt', I found the idea of "free trade" in poorer countries to be very different than i would have first thought. It seems free trade in the case of Jamaica resulted in a large import of goods, to the point where local Jamaica could not compete with the huge multinational corps from other countries.
There is a movie from a decade ago called "Life and Debt." It explores how international loans and aid have actually suppressed the local economies of the countries they tried to help.
For example, chicken breast meat is very popular in the western world. Once they remove the white meat where does the rest of it go. What the producers can't sell domestically in the US or Canada they export to developing countries at cut rate prices. This drives the local farmers out of business.
Before donating fruits to countries in need (and can grow the same fruit) think long and hard about the impact that help might have on their local economy. In any other scenario this would be considered dumping and that country would be taken to WTO court.