“John Christopher, 44, a self-employed information technology consultant from Newton, learned about Kiva through an article in The Economist magazine. He has made loans to 14 businesses in six countries since joining Kiva in July 2006.

“I just like the idea that we’re all equal, no matter where you’re at,” he said. “This is a way to give them the benefits of the capitalistic system we have. And this will mean a long-term improvement to their lifestyle, because it improves their ability to earn a living.”

Though he declined to say how much he and his family have loaned, Christopher said it is much more than the average Kiva lender, which is about $86.

“I just feel that we’re more connected if we’re giving a large chunk of a person’s loan, and we’re more vested in their success as well,” he said. “But we’re not doing anything too crazy. We’ve said, this is how much we’re going to (loan), and when they repay it, we just turn it around and loan it to someone else.”

Christopher said he tries to get his family involved in choosing the businesses to support.

“I started looking at South and Central America because they’re close to us, and Africa, because I think it seems to have the biggest need,” he said. “I just try to find a variety of things, things that just look like a good business idea. The last loan I made, some guy in Africa was going to do a delivery business with a motorcycle. That made sense; it seemed like something a guy could make money at.”

Students from at least one Iowa school have become micro-lenders through Kiva as well. Catherine Mein, a social studies teacher at Ballard Junior-Senior High School in Huxley, learned about Kiva through an article in Smithsonian magazine.

“I actually just gave the magazine to the leader of (the student council service committee), and she got really excited about it,” Mein said. Made up of about 16 students, the student council decided to lend $25 each to three borrowers.

At first, the students printed out profiles of the potential borrowers to discuss them, Mein said. However, “they found that borrowers were being funded so quickly that they just went online and (viewed it using a projector) and everybody took a look at different people and decided that way.”

It’s likely the project will expand to the rest of the school as it’s offered to other teachers, she said. “It’s great; I like the idea of micro-lending, and it’s also introducing them to people in other countries and offering them some assistance.”

Each time a Kiva borrower makes a payment, the lenders with a stake in the business receive an e-mailed update with the percentage repaid. The lenders receive their principal back after the loan is fully repaid.

The interest charged by the participating “field partner” banks that actually extend the loans, which can be 15 to 20 percent or more, accrues to Kiva to keep the organization operating. The transfers are made through PayPal, which waives its fees on the transactions as its contribution to the organization.

Presently, the supply of loans is actually outpacing the demand from potential borrowers, said Fiona Ramsey, a Kiva spokeswoman. For that reason, Kiva has temporarily capped the amount any one lender can extend at one time to $25.

“People have wanted to do something like this for so long,” she said. “There’s such an excitement from the lenders, and (they really like) the idea that you can loan the money again and again. They get so excited about it that they tell people about it. It’s a real credit to the lenders; they’re the ones who are putting this forward.”

Last month, Kiva picked up 49,000 new lenders, including about 4,000 who signed up on Christmas Day, Ramsey said. Lending in January should get a bump from gift-certificate sales. “On Christmas Eve, we sold $259,000 in gift certificates; that must have been a lot of last-minute shoppers,” she said.

Messina, who said he has bought gift certificates for friends, also makes the optional 10 percent donation to Kiva each time he makes a loan. ”

Read more at KIVA.ORG – rated one of the best ideas of 2006.

What’s interesting is the way in which an organization like this refutes the idea of money as something which solidifies privilege. In fact, historically, you could argue that the free market has usually acted more as an equalizer.

(This will seem shocking to anyone who has been brought up on the socialist belief that the free market inevitably tends toward privilege. What they are confusing is a true free market and one in which monopolistic conditions and coercion prevail — usually because of an incestuous relationship between the state and business. Minus the state, I wonder whether that would still be the case)

It was the market which undermined social position, family, tradition and gender as determining factors of success in favor of whatever an individual could bring to the market – whether intelligence or aptitude or drive or talent or looks or emotional intelligence or charm or people skill.

Money converted these individual attributes into economic leverage in society…