StupidHurts.me have developed a revolutionary way of offering an alternative to charitable donations to the most deserving across the world, not only have they opened their doors to budding t-shirt designers on the net, but they’re offering $1 to each artist and $2 to the micro credit organisation Kiva.org on every sale of every winning tee. So for all you t-shirt designers out there, old and new, come and help the world by submitting your own designs here.

If you’re not sure what micro credit is, well let me just spout my personal opinion for a moment here, it’s a system that will most likely save the world one day, or at least provide a real safety net for billions of people living in capitalist democracies across the world. What much of the West forgets is that charity alone will not provide all the solutions, or at least not effectively in the long term, to help the poor and needy around the world. It might buy them some food, or help them grow it, or a pump for a regular water supply, or even clothes and shelter, but what it doesn’t do is deal with the underlying problem of poverty and inequality.

This is a two way street by the way, imagine if an African bank or an Indian corporation had the wealth to buy out failing banks and companies in Europe or America, imagine if there was far more trade across the world, a higher income for every inhabitant of the planet, a thriving geo-global investment market that could self-repair from the ground up. Well with micro credit and micro banking it might just happen. Lending to the poor never made so much sense. Businesses start small, all businesses, relatively speaking, have to start from scratch. If I’d had the funding a few years ago to set up my own t-shirt label, I’d most likely be employing staff by now, who would be paying their taxes, buying products, paying bills and generally contributing to the world economy. Yet I am from a relatively wealthy Western nation.

Try and imagine the same predicament for a farmer, engineer, merchant, artisan, or in fact anyone of any skill in the poorest regions of the world. It’s even more difficult getting a business off the ground when one has to worry about how to feed one’s children, or repair the roof of a home many in the West would consider squalid. The fact is that in the poorest countries, the most infitessimal amount of finance can change a region from a 3rd World to a 2nd World economy within decades, the trickle-down theory actually can work, given the right circumstances, an appropriate vision, and patience. Micro credit has proven that.

Read more about how Stupid Hurts t-shirts might just help save the world by contributing to Kiva here. Sign up for Stupid Hurts’ newsletter and get previews of their latest t-shirt submissions (when available) here. Stupid Hurts, not so stupid after all.