But living amongst extreme poverty only increases your day-to-day perception of it, it doesn't make things any worse than if you stayed at home. It probably makes things just a little bit better.

I took the econ classes that talk about the pie growing, and I get it. But the pie doesn't grow equally everywhere --- not by the same proportion, and not at the same rate. Recognizing the idiosyncrasies of context makes the pie a lot less compelling a metaphor. Meanwhile, the game is rigged. See also, structural adjustment; US sugar subsidies killing Haiti's economy, Clinton apologies for; US cotton subsidies hurt West African cotton growers, everyone knows but rarely discusses; etc. etc. etc.

In the textbooks, growth in America raises growth in Africa. But there's a way of seeing the world outside the library that suggests America constrains growth elsewhere, when it's in America's best interest. And that's not just here, where the asking price for a used iPhone is nearly twice the per capita income.

And alas, there's no disputing that we are all dead in the long run. And while villagers here aren't naming John Maynard Keynes, it's certainly an argument I come face to face with here, articulated in a hundred different ways.

On being rich in a poor country, its probably better for the poor than being rich in a rich country. At least you are spending money locally and stimulating the economy.

Bottom-line - you should feel guilty - but not any more guilty when you are face to face with poverty. You should feel guilty every day, regardless of what country you live in. You should feel equally guilty in the US. And you should do something with that guilt.

Chris, I love the way you put that, "the moral economy of income." Yeah, I have no answer. Just my little blog post. But I hear what you're saying on all the things you can't explain.

And, Greg, also on that camera thing. Oy.

I was about to say there's no easy answer but maybe there's just no answer. I prefer to be reminded of the question, though lest I start to lose all sense of context, proportion, and obligation.

I have several friends in America (white, middle class, took an Economics class or three at our liberal arts college), who swear that wealth creation (in a sort of ex nihilio manner is possible and that a rising tide does truly lift all boats.

But, after living in Africa for almost a decade, and then traveling throughout Central and East Africa, and from reading a newspaper every once in a while, I no longer believe that. I believe there is one pie, and when someone gets a bigger slice, it means someone is getting a smaller slice. I don't think we can just keep making more pies, because there is a finite number of apples.

And, when it's high tide in New York harbor, it's probably low tide in Mombasa, or Mogadisho, or Luanda.

I've had few occasions to feel worse about myself as a human being than when someone on the grounds of the Gisenyi District Hospital asked me how much my cameras cost...

Could I convince her what with my six figure education debt, housing costs, medevac insurance, the more expensive than back-home meals? Wouldn't even dare to convince myself of such lameness.

Are rich-country foreign workers in any developing country doing more good than harm, regardless of salary source? Not so sure about this. The moral economy of income is a tough one. But the ambiguity at least gives us fodder for blog posts, doesn't it.