Finally Attention for Poverty (II)

Finally Attention for Poverty (II)

17 April 2026

The title refers to a text from a few years ago (Goede, 2023).

Yesterday I attended the presentations of the economists’ club on poverty in Curaçao. I knew I had to write something about it, but I tried to talk myself out of it. Until this morning, when I saw that the topic was widely discussed on social media and had even made the front page of the Antilliaans Dagblad. At that point, I could no longer avoid it.

The article announces the poverty policy of the Ministry of SOAW. Let me be clear: this policy has little chance of success from the outset. Not because there are no good intentions, but because combating poverty is one of the most difficult policy challenges—especially when the problem is insufficiently understood.

In the debate on our island, despite progress, we are still missing essential dimensions.

The multidimensional approach to poverty measurement is undoubtedly a step forward. But at the same time, it once again reduces the poor person to a data point. The idea that poverty is a “system problem” makes the issue abstract—a problem of everyone and therefore of no one.

The ombudsman and the experiential expert tried to give poverty a human face. But empathy is not self-evident in our society. Not even among those who have risen out of poverty themselves. When asked who has experienced poverty, people often respond: “When I was a student in the Netherlands.” Then you have not understood it. Having little money is not the same as being poor.

The paradox that the economy grows while poverty grows along with it speaks volumes. We are creating jobs that do not pay enough and that do not qualify as “decent work.” The belief that education is the solution is equally simplistic—especially in a context where family and friends often set the norm. Patronage, nepotism, and cronyism significantly reduce the value of education. You can graduate summa cum laude, but that does not necessarily get you ahead.

It is also striking what is not being discussed. Public transportation and affordable housing are absent from the debate, even though these conditions are crucial. Those who cannot move around cannot easily work or develop themselves.

Economists still insufficiently understand that people who work and earn more can nevertheless remain poor. This calls for insights from other disciplines.

We are missing what anthropologists have long demonstrated. Oscar Lewis introduced the concept of the culture of poverty: a self-perpetuating pattern of behaviors and beliefs that emerges as an adaptation to structural poverty, yet at the same time hinders social mobility (Lewis, 1959).

We are also missing what psychologists and behavioral scientists have convincingly shown: poverty affects the brain. Scarcity leads to a constant survival mode, in which people are less able to plan and more likely to make short-term decisions (Mullainathan & Shafir, 2013). Those who do not know what they will eat tonight or where they will sleep make different choices—must make different choices.

And we ignore lessons from experiments with a basic income, which show that a stable income actually helps people move out of survival mode and creates space for better decision-making (Banerjee et al., 2019).

When I casually ask at such gatherings whether people have read the book Armoede uitgelegd aan mensen met geld, there is some laughter. That is telling. This book should be required reading for anyone who wants to speak about or design policy on poverty (Jongers, 2022).

As long as we do not take science seriously, we will keep mopping with the tap running—and human suffering will continue unabated.

Miguel Goede

Bronnen (APA)

Goede, M. (2023). Eindelijk aandacht voor armoede op Curaçao. Geraadpleegd van https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/eindelijk-aandacht-voor-armoede-op-cura%C3%A7ao-miguel-goede/

Lewis, O. (1959). Five families: Mexican case studies in the culture of poverty. New York: Basic Books.

Mullainathan, S., & Shafir, E. (2013). Scarcity: Why having too little means so much. New York: Times Books.

Banerjee, A. V., Niehaus, P., & Suri, T. (2019). Universal basic income in the developing world. Annual Review of Economics, 11, 959–983.

Jongers, T. S. (2022). Armoede uitgelegd aan mensen met geld. Amsterdam: De Correspondent.

World Bank. (2020). Poverty and shared prosperity 2020: Reversals of fortune. Washington, DC: World Bank.