I'd not heard of this "solution" before. Thanks for the well written article. Have you seen Poverty, Inc? It covers quite a few well-meaning attempts to reduce poverty that, nonetheless, backfire. Maany people in many countries need help, but that the help is often designed from outside without the kind of local knowledge needed to both address poverty, but more importantly, grow the local economy so that poverty reduction is sustained. Even seemingly good ideas, like by-one-give-one shoes can disrupt an economy and prevent it from growing. While I support a strong social safety net, I find myself continuously going back to Hayek's views on the importance of local knowledge and the difficulty of centrally designed social engineering solutions.