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61 " There is no room in the economic literature for people making a living through self-employment, finding way to develop goods or services that they sell directly to those who need them. But in the real world, that's what you see the poor doing everywhere. "
― Muhammad Yunus , Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism
62 " I try to kind of enlightened my frustration and agony by coming to the conclusion that I may not be useful as an economist but I m still a basic human being. I can juts go out and stand next to human being. And see if there s anything I can do to another person. Even for a day if it is help pay for more a day I feel more a little bit better. "
― Muhammad Yunus
63 " How did we define “poverty-free”? After interviewing many borrowers about what a poverty-free life meant to them, we developed a set of ten indicators that our staff and outside evaluators could use to measure whether a family in rural Bangladesh lived a poverty-free life. These indicators are: (1) having a house with a tin roof; (2) having beds or cots for all members of the family; (3) having access to safe drinking water; (4) having access to a sanitary latrine; (5) having all school-age children attending school; (6) having sufficient warm clothing for the winter; (7) having mosquito nets; (8) having a home vegetable garden; (9) having no food shortages, even during the most difficult time of a very difficult year; and (10) having sufficient income-earning opportunities for all adult members of the family. We will be monitoring these criteria on our own and are inviting local and international researchers to help us track our successes and setbacks as we head toward our goal of a poverty-free Bangladesh. "
― Muhammad Yunus , Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty
64 " When a crisis is at its deepest, it can offer a huge opportunity. When things fall apart, we can redesign, recast, and rebuild. "
― Muhammad Yunus , Building Social Business: The New Kind of Capitalism That Serves Humanity's Most Pressing Needs
65 " GDP does not and cannot tell the whole story. Activities that do not require money changing hands are not counted as part of GDP—which means that, in effect, many of the things real human beings cherish most are treated as having no value. By contrast, money spent on weapons of "
― Muhammad Yunus , A World of Three Zeros: The New Economics of Zero Poverty, Zero Unemployment, and Zero Net Carbon Emissions
66 " Economic growth is a rising tide that lifts all boats. "
67 " The sooner we rearrange our priorities, the better it will be for all people on the planet, now and in the future. "
68 " If we can imagine something, there is a good chance that it will happen. If we don’t imagine it, there is almost no chance of it happening. "
69 " My experience with Jobra’s deep tubewell convinced me to turn my focus on the landless poor. Soon I started arguing that wherever a poverty alleviation program allowed the nonpoor to be copassengers, the poor would soon be elbowed out of the program by those who were better off. In the world of development, if one mixes the poor and the nonpoor in a program, the nonpoor will always drive out the poor, and the less poor will drive out the more poor, unless protective measures are instituted right at the beginning. In such cases, the nonpoor reap the benefits of all that is done in the name of the poor. "
70 " I believe that poor people are the world's greatest entrepreneurs. Everyday, they must innovate in order to survive. "
71 " Approximately the size of Florida, Bangladesh has a population of about 120 million. "
72 " Rather than limiting population growth, they should concentrate on improving the economic status of the people in general and the people at the bottom half in particular. Governments and population agencies are not putting nearly as much effort into changing the quality of life of the poor as they put into their scare tactics, such as pressuring illiterate men and women to physically remove their ability to procreate. UN "
73 " I found it increasingly difficult to teach elegant theories of economics and the supposedly perfect workings of the free market in the university classroom while needless death was ravaging Bangladesh. "
74 " Even reading a single page was extremely difficult. It said nothing. "
75 " Like any other idea, that of social business is subject to being misused and perverted. A few powerful people will look for ways to distort the concept and twist it for their own benefit—just as some misguided people have applied the term “microcredit” to describe companies that are really just loan sharks in disguise. Well-intentioned people will need to be on guard against those who would abuse the good name of social business. "
76 " In other words, economic development should be judged and measured by the per capita real income of the bottom 50 per cent of the population. "
77 " Our financial institutions have created a worldwide system of apartheid without anyone being horrified by it. If you don't have collateral, you are not credit worthy. To the banks, you are not accepted on our side of the world. "
78 " But I suppose the first thing I would do is move the headquarters to Dhaka. "
79 " All it takes to get poor people out of poverty is for us to create an enabling environment for them. Once the poor can unleash their energy and creativity, poverty will disappear very quickly. "
80 " This is a badly distorted picture of a human being. As even a moment’s reflection suggests, human beings are not money-making robots. The essential fact about humans is that they are multidimensional beings. Their happiness comes from many sources, not just from making money. And yet economists have built their whole theory of business on the assumption that human beings do nothing in their economic lives besides pursue selfish interests. The theory concludes that the optimal result for society will occur when each individual’s search for selfish benefit is given free rein. This interpretation of human beings denies any role to other aspects of life—political, social, emotional, spiritual, environmental, and so on. "