{"id":7690,"date":"2022-01-22T03:45:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-22T03:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=7690"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:34:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:34:13","slug":"a-bargain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=7690","title":{"rendered":"A BARGAIN"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What costs $61,000 in the U.S. but only $250 in Ghana, Africa?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

The creation of a new job.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

In the U.S. that $61,000 is needed to cover salary, health insurance, and training.*<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

In Ghana, that $250 is enough to fund a shopping trip to the city to get a beginning inventory of fresh fruits and vegetables to sell to neighbors close to home. Or plant a garden. Or purchase some chickens for breeding.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

But here\u2019s the catch: Finding $250 readily available in Ghana is tougher than finding $61,000 in the U.S.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

Much tougher.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

And here\u2019s something we need to keep in mind: Ghana, like much of the \u201cthird world\u201d, is a land of entrepreneurs. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

But the people are not hoping to \u201cbecome their own bosses\u201d because they are tired of working for someone else.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

They need to create their own jobs because there is no one else to work for. The Ghanaian entrepreneurs looking to feed, clothe, and educate their families have never seen a \u201cNow Hiring\u201d sign.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

(Officially, Ghana\u2019s unemployment rate is reported as 13.4%**. But friends on the ground say it has to be over 33% in reality.)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

Nor do they have the means to\u00a0 take out a loan from some local bank. Or even borrow from friends or family, who tend to be just as poor.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

So where in the world can people get the $250 or so to create their own job?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

That\u2019s why I am excited to be working with Mission Resource International now. MRI makes microloans available to individuals and businesses, mainly in Ghana at the moment. I believe this organization is poised to make a world of difference.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

__________<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

P.S. Everything I have written here about Ghana is true for Haiti as well, except the unemployment rate in Haiti is even higher. If it is God’s will, I hope to have a hand in bringing similar MRI ministries to Haiti.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

* Source: Opensesame.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

** Source: Ghana unemployment rate<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What costs $61,000 in the U.S. but only $250 in Ghana, Africa? The creation of a new job.\u00a0 In the U.S. that $61,000 is needed to cover salary, health insurance, and training.* In Ghana, that $250 is enough to fund a shopping trip to the city to get a beginning inventory of fresh fruits and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7690"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7691,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7690\/revisions\/7691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}