Muhammad Yunus, economics professor, received a Noble Prize for creating an organization that would lend money to people in need. It is completely based on trust. Who would think that such an idea would bring him to the point where he is standing right now: after 30 years he is leading the Gremeen Bank with 6.7 million customers! He lends small amounts of money and develops a program for people to repay it.
Muhammad believes that the world can exist without poverty. He insists in the interview that it is not the fault of poor people that they are poor. It is the fault of the ones above them. So, they, people with better fortune, have to help them. He also brings up an interesting example of a plumber and CEO of some big company sitting at a table drinking whatever they like... and both of them are respecting each other, both of them are making the same amount of money.
I don't know whether this would work in North America, but it proved to be successful in the third world countries with a large population below the poverty level. Nevertheless, the idea reminds me of the Canadian system with a strong social support for the RF (regular folk), taxing harder the rich and providing cheaper services like medical assistance for everyone. There is a potential to slowly realize his ideas into life in the rest of the world, as long as the critical mass of supporters is out there.
Audio Interview: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/the_interview.shtml
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