The Millennium Village Simulation was extremely frustrating. Regardless of what I did or what strategy I took, I could never collect enough funds for the village or the family to improve their living conditions significantly. In order to make money for the family, I constantly tried to make investments into the family business. Cotton growing wasn’t an option because we lacked the means to transport the cotton. It cost too much money to transport the cotton into the village to create profit. I attempted to focus farming on maize to create a little bit of profit for the family and satisfy their subsistence. However, the second there was a bad crop year, a water shortage, or any other issue the family was ruined. Whenever one of the villagers died, the economic output was ruined. It was somewhat feasible to continue surviving, but upwards economic mobility was impossible. The furthest I got was year 12.
I couldn’t imagine having to live in those conditions. For billions of people around the world, the sim is a representation of their life. During the simulation, there were a few opportunities to purchase infrastructure for the village at a government-subsidized price. But the amount of money that was required to make the purchase was unattainable. Government intervention or some sort of international intervention seems as if it is the only possibility to develop these communities. Without it, I don’t think it possible for these communities to have any sort of upward mobility. This sim shows the importance of how developed nations or global organizations like the UN need to interact with these communities. Without it, they are stuck in a poverty trap with no reasonable means to get out.
I think that your point about international intervention is really interesting. Because yes, in some cases it is necessary but there has also been a lot of exploitation and deception that has come along with help from an organization like the International Monetary Fund.
The game is nuts. I had a similar experience, where I was trying to juggle so many variables at once and nothing was working. Each time I would re-start, I’d try to learn from the last time and make more proactive choices, but it never worked out. You make a good point: some people face challenges like these every day. Only they don’t have the luxury of looking at every decision at once (or being able to start over).
I fully agree — the game was seemingly impossible but what’s sad is that probably points to life for some being impossible. I think that government intervention is key but it is hard when the structures already out up are not functioning well to begin with. I think there needs to be a push worldwide to prioritize this issue, even though that is extremely complicated.