Technology creates great wealth is so many ways. In Bangladesh a micro lending organization is now helping to lift the poor out of begging by providing them a cell phone on which they can sell phone calls. Wireless phone companies have established human phone booths before but that was an employment program not an entrepreneurial program. Recipients of the phones repay the bank in interest free installments over a two year period.
This simple idea is appropriate to a country with low per capita income and consequently low cell phone penetration.
I wonder what opportunities there might be for replicating this kind of idea in the US. Whit the cost of technology dropping every day would their be a way to equip economically disadvantaged people with "convenience" technology that they might be able to sell use to create income. Wi-Fi push carts? Digital camera photo printing pushcarts? Gadget charging stations?
Taking a bench break during my first visit to the stunning new Millennium Park in Chicago I was surprised by a large man who suddenly dropped his bag and started to brush my shoes beginning a shoe shine. Not needing a shoe shine I waved him off. I wonder if I would have been interested in 10 minutes of recharging time for my cell phone.
I also thought about how small the market is for this shoe shine guy. Looking around that day I saw that most people were wearing athletic shoes or sandals neither of which need a shoe shine.
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