ABSTRACT
Former US President Bill Clinton, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and so many other prominent individuals have emphasized the importance of giving. 1 Aid is indeed important and has saved many lives in places of extreme poverty. Nonetheless, severe poverty will not be eliminated unless the populations in LDCs achieve the level of economy that will bring them out of poverty through economic development. Economic development cannot be achieved solely by aid, and requires development of viable industries. Unfortunately, many LDCs do not have the requisite educational, industrial, financial, and political capabilities to initiate large-scale economic development projects that have been undertaken successfully by some of the East Asian countries. Economic development has not been successful in most LDCs, and crushing poverty still exists.
