Recipe for Hope


It is my honor to introduce Dr. Jerry Epps, my friend’s poverty reduction plan. He helped inspire me as I developed the Take it to Zero and Rosetta Interactive Library projects (both still in early start-up stages) as I helped inspire his Recipe for Hope project.

“The goal of Recipe for Hope is to End Poverty (at least 80% or more of it) by creating the economic conditions that enable families to have more money to spend and thereby move out of poverty into the working class.

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Top 10 Cottage Industry Products

Harvey Lacey’s block press turns recycled plastic trash into beautiful, durable and extremely strong homes.
Harvey Lacey’s block press turns recycled plastic trash into beautiful, durable and extremely strong homes.

We covered cottage industry appropriate technology in a previous blog post. The aim here is to identify the top 10 products for ease of construction, impact on community and potential profitability. These products obviously go way beyond just creating jobs and making a buck. The products featured here will have a big impact on local communities. Some are saving thousands of lives. Water filters, for example, help prevent disease. Treadal pumps have enabled hundreds of thousands of farmers to greatly increase crop production.

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Making a Dent in the Universe

Paul Polak uses sound market practices to create world changing businesses.
Paul Polak uses sound market practices to create world changing businesses.

I’ve been reading up on Paul Polak’s work at Paul Polak.com. His new book The Business Solution to Poverty with co-author Mal Warwick has inspired me to dig deeper in search of more affordable housing solutions. They explain why governmental and philanthropic efforts to end poverty have fallen short and will never end poverty because “they lack the incentives of the market to attract massive resources”. Donations and tax money will never end poverty. It’s just Business 101 if you think about it.

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