Page 11 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

Muhammad Yunus: Can wealth concentration be stopped?

entrepreneurs by bringing out their suppressed talent of entrepreneurship. The critics
seem to believe that entrepreneurship belongs only to small class of special people,
the rest are born to work for them.
If we leave the financial institutions unchanged, they will only keep on adding
fuel to the wealth concentration. To slow down concentration of private wealth two
things need to be done. Existing financial institutions have to be redesigned to make
sure they cannot remain to be the facilitating vehicle for wealth concentration.
Secondly, we need to build an entirely new set of financial institutions to deliver all
financial services to the poor. It is extremely important to provide financial services
to the poor so that they can move up on their own. These exclusive institutions
should be designed as social business rather than allowing them to become
instruments of personal profit making for the rich, which in turn would strengthen
the wealth accumulation process for them.
If one wants to find out why the wealthy becomes wealthier, all one has to do
is to look closely at the financial institutions. They are the engines which drive
wealth concentration. If we wish to see change in the wealth-pyramid in favor of the
poor, a new financial system is a must. Existing system has not only created the
wealth-pyramid, it is making it worse at a faster and faster rate.

Social Business
Working with the poor led me to many other problems of the poor. I tried to
address some of them. I always tried to solve each problem by creating a new
business. Over time it became a habit with me. Every time I confront a problem I
created a business to solve it. Soon I created many companies, and company-like
independent projects, such as, housing for the poor, sanitary toilets for the poor,
health care, renewable energy, nutrition, water, nursing college, eye care hospital,
auto mechanic training school, and many more.
They gradually started displaying some common features. They are created as
sustainable businesses, but no one is allowed to take any personal profit out of it.
Investor gets back the investment money, nothing more. Company's profit is
ploughed back into the company for improvement and expansion. I called this new
type of business social business, defined as a non-dividend company to solve human
problems.
I was amazed how easy it was to solve human problems if we designed it as a
business with the sole mission of solving a problem, and with no intention to benefit
personally from the business. We are always told that business-engine was designed
for only one use, making personal money. I used the same engine for a completely
different purpose, that is, to solve human problems. I found it extremely powerful in
getting the job done. Suddenly all the creative power could be marshaled behind this

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