The Law of Unintended Consequences (or how to do more harm than good)

I read in today’s newspaper that the actions of charities like Oxfam, who ship some 2000 tons of old clothes to Africa each year, is destroying the culture of countries such as Ghana by replacing its traditional clothing with western-style jeans and football tops.

Another and more serious consequence of this mass shipment of cheap clothing is that it is now affecting the countries’ textile industries, destroying jobs and undermining their ability to grow their own industries and so overcome poverty.

Not unsurprisingly, Oxfam’s Trading Director, Andrew Horton, defends the trade in second-hand clothes and with a mind-boggling dichotomy of thought says that the trade creates jobs but undermines local garment industries!

I don’t suppose Mr Horton’s defensive position as anything to do with the money Oxfam makes out of this trade but wouldn’t it be better to invest in improving the local infrastructure, so that countries such as Ghana can become less reliant on aid, than to simply use them as a dumping ground for our un-wanted cast-offs?