The results are in! We'd like to thank all distinguished panel of judges for their time and interest in this contest (Alex Tabarrok, Karol Boudreaux, Gabriel Daly and Bob Chitester).

The following are the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners of our Power of the Poor Blog Contest:

1st Place: Robert Vesco - "Dandelions, Institutions and the Power of the Poor" ($250 and a DVD)

If tomorrow we repealed every tax, respected every property right, and removed all the constraints that bind entrepreneurship and human initiative — there would still be no guarantee that the poor would realize their power and achieve prosperity. This is because cultural institutions like family, media, schools, and religion are ultimately the true drivers of growth. They are what inspire people to take risks, overcome obstacles, and succeed.

If a country’s cultural institutions revere great football players like Pele, then you will get millions of children aspiring to be the next football star. If a country’s cultural institutions stress engineers and doctors as the ultimate achievement — you will get those. The problem is that football players may lift our spirits, engineers may build our bridges, and doctors may cure our ills, but those professions and role models alone cannot help the vast number of poor achieve power and prosperity. Read more

2nd Place: Tony Cookson - "The Power of the Poor and Institutions" ($100 and a DVD)

The world's poor are an untapped resource, which is the key to ending poverty.

But the fact remains they are still excluded from the formal economies by a wall of paperwork. Burdensome regulations push well-meaning people into informal economies where the government offers no legal protection. If the government won't stand behind you (or worse yet, wants to take the fruits of your labor), what are your incentives for productive activity? To mitigate the cost of expropriation, citizens in informal economies either produce less and don't save or expend effort on unproductive activities that make it difficult for the government to take their savings. In either case, citizens fearing expropriation are poorer on account of being excluded. Read more

3rd Place: Mike Fladlien - "Power to the Poor" (DVD)

On the second floor of a ghetto apartment, a Hare Krishna monk has converted a closet into a recording studio. In between recording sessions, he chants to bring out that natural, pure state of mind that is the energy within. The monk meditates for spiritual guidance in his chanting. Often insight accompanies his chanting. “America is great!” he says. “Only in America can you make something from nothing and get paid for it.” Read more