WORLDVIEW: First power, now water – SA must get the basics right

In SA, the government makes ambitious plans for financing and development programmes, but has been unable to keep the lights on and the water flowing.
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The FT recently ran a story about AOL founder Steve Case's attempt to jumpstart growth in rural America through venture capital. Having noticed that most of the venture capital in the US goes to Silicon Valley and New York, Case decided that the best way to encourage growth would be to direct more venture capital at America's left-behind interior.

The FT article made the point that the problem with America's backwaters isn't actually a lack of financial capital – that's a symptom. The real problem is that most of the interior of the country lacks decent infrastructure and skilled workers.

The US spends less on worker training than most other OECD countries and has starved its infrastructure of investment for a generation. Sensible midwesterners and southerners with chutzpah and a college education move to one of the country's relatively well-connected coastal cities, leaving their unskilled peers stuck in decaying rural towns.

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