Quote:
Originally Posted by microbet
Bob, I don't think the best solution is either all one-way or all the other.
My philosophical objection to aid in kind is that, assuming the thing you're providing can be bought on the open market, providing it in kind seems to imply: (a) you know for sure that the aid recipient's decision to buy something else with cash aid is wrong, and (b) you can't or won't convince them of that. I think (a) is false a lot more often than people believe, and (b) shows a disturbing lack of faith in the judgment of aid recipients.
I'm a bit of a hypocrite here in that I support Against Malaria Foundation (which provides anti-mosquito bed netting) in addition to GiveDirectly (which provides cash money), but I rationalize it on the basis that my wife likes it and there's probably crazy economies of scale in bed netting. I'm not comfortable with it though.