We\u2019ve all heard the Chinese proverb, \u201cGive a poor man a fish and you feed her for a day. You teach her to fish and you give her an occupation that will feed her for a lifetime.\u201d It\u2019s a great concept, one that is popular with those who are more free market-oriented\u2013they like the notion of hand-me-ups instead of hand-outs\u2013as well as with those who tend toward socialism, as they like the idea of empowering the poor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is perhaps no greater adherent to, and believer in, this philosophy than Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner and so-called father of microfinance. His visionary idea, that by giving poor women in Bangladesh small loans to start or expand micro businesses they can regain dignity and move out of poverty, spawned an entire microfinance movement and industry; it also inspired me to start Capital Good Fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As effective as these steps are for finding a hobby, you\u2019ll need to know what kind of hobbies are out there if you want to pick one. More than a few could pop into your head relatively quickly. Some of these will be interesting, while others wouldn\u2019t be. Finding a hobby can often seem complicated unless one pops into your head straight away. That doesn\u2019t mean you need to spend a lot of time and effort figuring it out. Instead, it could be a lot easier than you could\u2019ve thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This ignores several realities: that food stamp recipients have similar rates of drug use as the general public; that middle-class and wealthy families receive all manner of public benefits\u2013mortgage interest deductions, tax cuts, among others\u2013without facing stigma; and that attaching work requirements to public benefits doesn\u2019t work when there are no jobs, or when the only jobs available don\u2019t pay a living wage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More likely to live in dilapidated, unsafe, and unhealthy apartments that are also unaffordable. More likely to be incarcerated for small crimes for which the non-poor (and white) are often let off with a warning. And more likely to lack easy access to affordable banking services, quality health care, and fresh food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These can all be a lot more interesting than you\u2019d think, and you\u2019re sure to have a lot of fun when you\u2019re doing them. They could even help you learn a few new skills when you\u2019re doing them. Instead, it\u2019s worth being as open-minded as possible. You\u2019ll end up finding more hobbies you\u2019ll be interested in than you could\u2019ve thought. Many of these could end up being more enjoyable than you would\u2019ve expected. You\u2019re not going to know that unless you\u2019re open-minded and willing to give it a go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We\u2019ve all heard the Chinese proverb, \u201cGive a poor man a fish and you feed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/warrenlake.fishing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/warrenlake.fishing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/warrenlake.fishing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warrenlake.fishing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warrenlake.fishing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/warrenlake.fishing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warrenlake.fishing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/warrenlake.fishing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warrenlake.fishing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warrenlake.fishing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}