Not All Energy Comes From Technology

Energy is tied directly to wealth and lack of affordable energy is tied directly to poverty. Do you think the poor work less hard than you do? Think again. Cheap energy (and being able to leverage that energy to increase productivity) in America has brought us the wealth we enjoy.

Paul Polak's vision is that if you treat the poor like consumers and entrepreneurs, they will get themselves out of poverty. His non-profit company, International Development Enterprises (IDE), is dedicated to developing practical solutions that attack poverty at its roots. It has developed many tools to make this happen and some of them are human and animal powered. These sources of energy are scaled and appropriate to the developing cultures. Polak's work has already moved 17 million people out of poverty. That might be a drop in the bucket, but it's a good start.

Have a look at his video from TEDxTalks and check out his book, Out of Poverty.