ABSTRACT

This chapter seeks to fracture the problematic mental models surrounding the particular role that multinational enterprises can play in this system. It exposes a number of biases that impede the consideration of fruitful solutions like the Children’s Development Bank (CDB). The narrative with which we began this chapter about children engaged in banking upends a persistent mental model about poverty, particularly poverty in less developed countries. The notion of a CDB challenges one set of deeply imbedded learned mental models about the abilities of children, particularly their ability to organize a bank, save money, and be responsible for their own and for others’ finances. The challenge of global poverty dialogue is not to dismiss moral notions, but instead to evaluate them critically so that the sphere of potential responses includes innovative solutions and is not unconsciously and unnecessarily restricted by the constraint of mental models.