Wednesday, January 19, 2005
The top ten lies
I'm not big on characterizing points of view as "lies," but as a list of "opinions that lead no where useful" the Diplomad is right on target. For example:
2) Foreign Aid Helps Poor People. No. Foreign aid largely helps the High Priest Vulture Elite, airlines, restaurants, hotels, car-rental companies and other service industries that cater to the HPVE. Freedom, trade, capitalism and education help poor people. Plus it also matters that their culture teaches them a work ethic (see number 8 below). The old saw that "foreign aid is when the poor people of a rich country give money to the rich people of a poor country" has more than a kernel of truth. BTW, try to name any country that has been developed by foreign aid.
I agree wholeheartedly, and there are nine more just like it. Read the whole thing.
CWCID: Fausta.
2 Comments:
By 
dirty dingus, at
Wed Jan 19, 04:31:00 PM:
As I commented on at the Biplomad blog - I can think of one country that has been developed by foreign aid: Switzerland.
By mm, at
Sat Jan 22, 08:12:00 PM:
humm.. the marshall plan was useful to europe. japan, s. korea and taiwan all gained from military protection and advantagous trade conditions with the US after WWII; companies were actively encouraged to buy from japan and share technology.
more fundamentally the question conflates two separate issues: 1. whether aid has in the past effectively increased economic growth and 2. whether aid increases the well being of people in recipient nations.
Even focusing in the first issue, the question misses the point: aid can increase the economic growth of many nations' long term well-being without any one "be[ing] developed by foreign aid" I don't think anyone argues today that aid alone can "develop" a nation, but it can raise millions of people out of poverty. Changing a GDP per person from $1000 to $2000/per year would be a huge benefit to a nation, but you could not call the nation "developed".
The question also fails on another ground: we have never seriously tried to develop nations using foreign aid (other than those mentioned above). Our donations are meager in comparison to our GDP, and most US foreign aid is driven by geopolitical concerns, not humanitarian concerns; Isreal and Egypt receive billions in aid while funds needed for mosquito nets in sub sahara africa are unavailable.
It seems obvious that the "foriegn aid" of helping people affected by the recent tsunami is helping many poor people.
I hear conservatives often feel we don't hear about all that good news coming out of Iraq. Perhaps, just like the violence in Iraq, you only hear about foreign aid when it is not working, when there is corruption.
If you are interested in the many ways we could use foreign aid to help people economist Jeffery Sachs has plenty of plans.
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1403544
I might say the comment "Foreign Aid Does *Not* Help Poor People" is the myth that should be addressed.
