microcredit systems similar to the grameen bank in bangladesh have been tried and many projects have alleviated the worst forms of poverty but few have had the effect of helping the poor to become full participants in an economic system where they can decide the future on their own above all the very few examples of collective action by the poor in response to challenges posed by the economic system would indicate that they have not yet moved from merely coping to being willing and able to take organized steps to change the system these are countries that have fully embraced modem values and norms of rationality