Naomi Harris

Muhammad Yunus reminds us of the importance of agency. In his article, “Social Business,” he highlights that a crucial component of eradicating global poverty is to allow the impoverished to help themselves. But his work is not a form of trickle-down economics or “pull yourself up by your bootstrap” mentality that essentially leaves the poor and disadvantaged in generational poverty. Instead he offers a solution called social business. His concept of social business is to combine our reliance on the free market with social activism. He defines social business as a “cause driven business” and that all profit invested can only be paid back once the company achieves the social success. Yunus reflects on his work with the microcredit Grameen Bank as an example of how social business can work. His organization gave the poor access to the free market and within this approach agency was a critical part. Nobody should feel like a charity case and through Yunus’ approach of social business he made sure the people in Bangladesh activated free will and decision-making.

I believe his work was assigned to our class in order to disrupt our binary concept of capitalism and activism. It is possible to be in the profit world while actively addressing social problems. Yunus reinforces this through his framework of social business. He explains that the free market failed majority of the world because half of the world lives on 2 dollars a day. He believes that such a social problem can be solved with new concepts beyond nonprofit and profit work. In fact people will become motivated in the free market world to solve social issues once we realize that social change does not equate limited personal success. But Yunus emphasizes the importance of keeping to the goal of social change while operating in a business model.

Overall, his article made me reflect on the past week or so as the Trump administration released plans for budget cuts. We need to rethink our reliance on government and nonprofit organizations as our answers to solving social problems. The Trump administration plans on cutting budgets for the Department of Transportation, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education and the Department of Environmental Protection Agency, according to CNN. Such cuts will heavily impact social causes that the government helped protect in previous years. Our class must think creatively on how to address social problems and Yunus gives us an example through social business. There are many things to consider while we look for a nonprofit organization that aids in education. I believe collaboration is incredibly important and if I see a nonprofit that works in collaboration with business models it will show creativity and resourcefulness.