Arguably one of the most active economic minds in recent history, Dr. Jeffrey D. Sachs got his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University in 1980. Following his graduation, Sachs decided to teach at Harvard where he worked as an assistant professor, associate professor, and regular professor until 2002 when he chose to join the faculty ranks at Columbia University, where he now works as a professor and as the director of the Center for Sustainable Development. Although Sachs' academic career is impressive and extensive, much of his influence can be seen through his work assisting the global community on numerous fronts. Specifically, Sachs served as an advisor to multiple UN agencies, including the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, acted as an advisor to multiple countries around the globe regarding inflation and sustainable development, and was a special advisor for multiple UN Secretary-Generals: Kofi Annan, Ban Ki-moon, and Antonio Guterres. While the true extent of Sachs's contributions may be difficult to confirm for many years, his work's effects are noticeable.
Sachs's contributions to public discourse begin with his work in academics, specifically at the University of Columbia. During Sachs's time at the University of Columbia, a large part of his efforts have been involved with the topic of sustainable development. Sustainable development, as described by UNESCO, is "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". Essentially, those like Sachs that work in sustainable development focus on creating forms of growth that are lasting and won't self-destruct in the future. For example, one of Sachs' recent sustainable development projects with Columbia University focuses on realizing sustainable development in the coffee sector. Sachs' explains that coffee suffers heavily when it comes to sustainability because of "continued child labor, deforestation, ... and … growing challenges from climate change". Furthermore, he highlights the increasing need to reach sustainability as coffee producers are "squeezed" during the coffee crisis that had developed during 2019.
Sachs's critique of the coffee sector regarding their unsustainable methods encompasses the "function" of a public intellectual as described by Dr. Stephen Mack. Specifically, Sachs' involvement in this coffee crisis reflects his choice to "[learn] the processes of criticism and [practice] them with some regularity". While the art of creating sustainable development in itself involves criticism, since someone like Sachs has to offer criticism when dealing with issues like the coffee crisis, Sachs goes even further by actually creating a Masters of Development Practice (MDP) program that "is now offered in 30 universities around the world" along with a Ph.D. program in sustainable development at Columbia University. While this will undoubtedly have an astounding effect on public discourse in the future, it also promotes this concept of "criticism" by bringing the issue of sustainable development into the light since it will now be studied and discussed as an academic discipline.
Moving on from Sachs's academic career, next, we can take a look at his contributions working as an advisor to numerous countries dealing with economic struggles and as an advisor at the UN. Starting with Sachs' work advising other countries, one of his most considerable accomplishments was ending Bolivia's hyperinflation problem. Contrary to what one may assume, Sachs' involvement in Bolivia was primarily the result of his unwavering confidence and a coincidence. The story begins at a Harvard seminar dealing with the Bolivian Crisis where Sachs cannot help but interrupt the speaker and proclaim, "here's how it works" regarding the entire topic. Having gained a reputation for being a know-it-all, Sachs claimed he "knew just about everything that needed to be known" regarding his field of study, the speaker proclaimed, "Well, if you're so smart, why don't you come down to La Paz to help us?". As fate would have it, the speaker at this seminar later became Bolivia's foreign minister and would choose to extend an invitation. Three years after Sachs' arrival, Bolivia's hyperinflation problem had met its end, and Sachs would even go on to assist other countries like Poland and Russia with their issues. Sachs' immense confidence and willingness to take on "The public intellectual function" of "criticism" compounded together and ultimately represented Sachs blowing the "requisites for intellectual employment" out of the water.
As suggested previously, many of Sachs' contributions as a public intellectual stem from serving as an advisor at the United Nations. Specifically, Sachs's main goal at the UN was to bring about quick and peaceful globalization, or the "global integration of economies and societies". Sachs' argued that globalization was necessary because having only "15% of the earth's population … [providing] nearly all of the world's technology innovations", and having only "half of the world's population … able to adopt these technologies" was a significant failure that limited our potential for innovation and left many underdeveloped countries stuck in a "poverty trap". Simply put, Sachs believed that allowing more widespread use of technology would help increase our potential for technological growth while also helping develop these more impoverished regions. Furthermore, Sachs claimed that an essential factor in this process for globalization is the effective distribution and use of foreign aid in these developing regions. He argues that "governments need to change their approach to aid" by "spending more, and more wisely" to facilitate development. While Sachs' critique of developed economies for not effectively using aid to stimulate globalization is indicative of his sharp "edge of criticism" and lack of attendance at "white house dinners," his ideas still faced considerable backlash.
As one might expect, a significant amount of people in the United States view Sachs' plan for globalization through foreign aid as "an object of contempt". Starting with the call for globalization alone, Sachs himself recognizes in an interview that a large part of the problem with globalization is that it raises "lots of concerns that the world is not a very fair place". The start of globalization is marked by continually increasing "inequalities in income" and a variety of other smaller concerns like fear of job insecurity. Furthermore, globalization had the specific effect of drastically increasing "The wages of highly educated and well trained workers" while having the opposite effect on "Lower-skilled workers with fewer years of education". It's easy to understand why this kind of outcome would be viewed negatively since most workers are not "highly educated"; however, many other intellectuals find grievances specifically with the foreign aid part of Sachs' plan.
Seeking to disprove Sachs' claim that foreign aid would serve a key role in reducing underdeveloped countries' poverty levels, an article by William Easterly tries to highlight why The Aid Debate Is Over. The first argument made against Sachs' is that he is wrong to think that "Ending Poverty … was just a matter of raising enough money". While Sachs' argued that "All the problems of poverty … had discrete technological fixes," Easterly claimed that "technology does not implement itself" and that experienced people with substantial incentives and restrictions on social and political systems were necessary to actually succeed. Furthering his position, the author cites the story of a man in charge of maintaining wells in one of these underdeveloped regions receiving aid. The local realizes he's missing an essential part for powering his wells generator but has to wait four months just to get the piece. Furthermore, after getting the part, he discovers that nobody can install it, and he has to find a mechanic from outside the area to come to fix it until the wells break down again and the process starts over. Even worse, after finally getting all the wells functioning again a year later, a drought hits the region causing the wells to become dry. While Easterly clearly puts forth some valid reasoning behind why Sachs' approach isn't as practical as he thinks, it is clear that Sachs and those in his field are dedicated to having a positive impact through their work.
Looking back at an interview where Sachs is asked about the source of his passion, he states that "in life we should try to do something useful," and that he was fortunate enough to live in an age where he had an opportunity to contribute. To that end, he substantially achieved the goal that he set out for through his work in Bolivia and other Latin American countries. Furthermore, his ideas put to work through the UN, while heavily scrutinized by people like Easterly, still produced noteworthy results. For example, Sachs' push for more aid collected enough funding for three-hundred million mosquito bed nets, which were found to have reduced malaria deaths in African kids by 51%. Not to mention, "10 million HIV-infected individuals are … receiving life-saving, anti-retroviral medicines" from funding that is partially supported by these aid programs.
While some of Sachs' work has been scrutinized for its flaws, he undoubtedly positively influenced almost every continent that he set out to help. Unfortunately, some individuals like Easterly may never fully recognize the impact that he has had; However, Sachs' would likely welcome this criticism as a contribution to discourse in his field. Furthermore, Sachs' use of criticism and welcoming of it is highly representative of the idea presented by Jean Bethke Elshtain and discussed by Dr. Stephen Mack that "public intellectuals … should be party poopers". As recently as last Year, Sachs can be seen in an interview with France 24 scrutinizing the United States wars in the middle east and claiming that "US exceptionalism is self-destructive". While this kind of critique may cause Sachs to be shunned for damaging American nationalism, his staunch attitude would likely prevent him from drifting away from his goal of being useful wherever he can.
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