Is it OK to make a profit serving the extreme poor?
De-regulated Britain has a nasty reputation for taxing poverty - the poor pay much more for electricity , get charged crippling interest rates , and get ripped off when they buy things (*see example below); it's been called a 'poverty premium'. It seems repellent but it makes commercial sense and it's all quite legal. The argument for allowing this predatory behaviour is that this is the only way for companies to serve this demographic profitably; the problems stem from the way companies market to people whose maths isn't good enough to work out they're being fleeced, or who feel they have no choices. The next generation of Ethiopia's farmers Those of us working in the mobile for development (M4D) sector in poorer parts of the world realise we have to grapple with the same basic issue: serving poor people is risky and if it doesn't cover its costs it won't happen once donor support is withdrawn. But if companies are allowed to prof...