Daily Inspiration Quote by Susan George

"Subsidize... or lend" reads like a shrug with a knife in it: a tiny fork in the road that exposes how power disguises itself as help. Susan George, an activist forged in the battles over debt, IMF conditionality, and the politics of “development,” compresses a whole critique into three words and an ellipsis. The pause is the point. It forces you to hear the unspoken clause: if wealthy states and institutions won’t pay their fair share to repair damage or build capacity, they’ll happily offer a loan instead - with interest, strings, and moral theater attached.

The intent is provocation through reduction. By stripping away the usual language of partnership, modernization, and aid effectiveness, George spotlights the ideological preference for credit over redistribution. Subsidies imply obligation and a partial surrender of control: you give resources without demanding ownership of the recipient’s policy choices. Lending preserves hierarchy. It turns need into a revenue stream, and solidarity into a contract.

The subtext is especially sharp because “lend” carries a social veneer: it sounds prudent, even generous, like teaching someone responsibility. George’s ellipsis punctures that self-image, hinting at the real bargain: austerity, privatization, weakened labor protections, and the quiet transfer of sovereignty from elected governments to creditors’ spreadsheets.

Contextually, this is the language of late-20th-century global finance in miniature - when “aid” was often less a gift than a disciplined pathway into markets, and the most profitable export wasn’t goods, but debt.