Micro-loans are good, Wal-Mart is even better.

When comes to alleviating Third World poverty, micro-loans have helped millions of people start smart businesses, tike setting eggs at the local market. But there's a limit to how much money people can make setting eggs to one another. Michael Strong of Flow, a group that promotes entrepreneurship abroad, argues that the best way for Third World villagers to tap "the vast pipeline of wealth from the developed world" is to sell their products to the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart. Making toys or shoes for Wal-Mart in a Chinese or Latin American factory may sound awful, to U.S. students--and some factories should treat their workers much better. But there are good reasons villagers move hundreds of miles for these jobs. Most "sweatshop" jobs provide enough to lift a worker above the poverty level, and often far above it. So if you want to help villagers make money, remember the social-justice slogan Strong proposes: "Act locally, think globally: Shop Wal-Mart."