Stupid idea of a the week comes from officials in Birmingham, Alabama looking to land $200 laptops intended for places like Peru and Mongolia. This is likely the last thing poor kids in Birmingham need. To the extent that they anywhere near as materially needy as actual Third World kids, that is.
Per capita income in Birmingham is about $18,000 a year. In Mongolia it is has been growing rapidly but is around $3000. In Peru it is somewhere between double and three times that. Or roughly half that of a particularly economically distressed part of Alabama — Birmingham’s population has shrunk by about 35,000 people in the last 10 years.
Even so, there is plenty of income floating around Birmingham for computers. There are also publicly available computers at the local library. There are even classes on how to use a computer at the Regional Library Computer Center. I seriously doubt you’ll find that on the Mongolian steppe.
In short, we’ve got a total grandstanding move by government officials who do not understand the community — or the world — in which they live. It would be a much better use of their time to focus on fixing public infrastructure issues and crime than greedily chasing after low-cost laptops. And if they still feel compelled to grandstand, stand up and tell Birmingham residents who want a computer to re-prioritize their spending habits — away from cell phones and ringtones, for example.
