Re: [OT] I hate being American

From: Perion (RazroRog_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 12/31/04 

Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 08:26:25 -0500

"Frank Bemelman" <f.bemelmanq@xs4all.invalid.nl> wrote in message
news:41d41bd1$0$6212$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl...
>
> And welcome it is. If you compensate per capita, the US drops to the 20th
> place on the list of countries that give aid. So I am not sure what Perion
> meant by 'generosity'.
>
> If we delete those words from his reply, I think we can agree on:
>
> "the fact is, 'America and Americans' accounts for third-world developmental
> and humanitarian aid".
>
In terms of official government spending, it's true - generosity was a poor
choice of wording. America has been steadily turning away from foreign aid over
the past 10 - 15 years and personally, I'm glad. However (and this is a big
however), the figures usually cited for national contribution to foreign aid
don't take into account private, charitable, and other non-government,
donations. Americans privately give at least $34 billion overseas (year 2000
estimates) -- more than THREE TIMES the U.S. official foreign aid of $10
billion. Here's a brief breakdown:

1. International giving by U.S. foundations (i.e. greedy capitalist pigs) totals
$1.5 billion per year
2. Charitable giving by those evil U.S. businesses comes to at least $2.8
billion annually
3. American NGOs gave over $6.6 billion in grants, goods and volunteers.
4. Religious overseas ministries contribute $3.4 billion, including health care,
literacy training, relief and development.
5. $1.3 billion by U.S. colleges are given in scholarships to foreign students
(as many of you anti-US whiners are personally aware).
6. Personal remittances from the U.S. to developing countries came to $18
billion in 2000

Here's my take on the foreign aid deal:
In the long run, it's easy to make the case that foreign aid is
counter-productive for the recipient nation and is just an economic drain on the
doner's economy (in spite of the fact that most aid is given with self-serving
geo-political motives). In many American's minds, foreign aid is just another
(huge) international welfare endeavor done for the usual hidden purposes of
welfare systems - to buy influence and foster dependency. The US has been
turning away from that worthless socialistic tactic toward a "trade, not aid"
philosophy. Besides - who wants to give money and resources to someone in need
when, in countless instances, those resources just end up lining the pockets of
some foreign government bureaucrats who then turn around and bitch and whine and
eventually call you a greedy a-hole and then stab you in the back at every
opportunity. It's not surprising that we have been rethinking the whole
international welfare crap.

Historically, Americans have a long tradition of generously [yea, that's right -
the G word] aiding the victims of foreign earthquakes, famines, and wars. Before
World War II, private citizens provided almost all of America's foreign
assistance. After World War II, the Truman administration decided that a larger,
more centralized effort was necessary to revitalize the war-torn economies of
Europe. Economic planning was the rage in Washington in the late 1940s, and
Marshall Plan administrators exported their new-found panacea. The Marshall Plan
poured over $13 billion [i.e. a lot of f'n bucks at the time!] into Europe and
coincided with an economic revival across the continent. [Out of curiosity, I
wonder how many $ billion other nations have poured into the US's development?]

Thanx to the post WW2 communist bloc's aggressive agenda of enslaving the world
with ridiculous Marxist BS, the resulting "cold war" diverted untold hundreds of
$billions away from potentially worthwhile and culturally productive
expenditures just to deal with that idiotic non-sense. Since 1946, the US has
given hundreds of $billion in humanitarian assistance to foreign countries.

As I stated earlier, I think that foreign aid is counter-productive for the
recipient and an almost worthless drain on the doner's economy. For example,
back in 1985 and the heyday of doling out $billions, despite receiving over $10
billion in U.S. aid, Egypt remained desperately poor and the billions had little
positive impact on Egypt's core economic problems. It committed to government
dominance of the economy, and the United States made little effort to dissuade
it from its wasteful economic policies. Bottom line - $10 billion down the
poop-chute. That same year AID spent $24 million in Egypt over five years trying
to construct 29 government-run and 10 private bakeries. Egypt decided to
decrease bread-production costs by centralizing bread baking, but the project
was badly mismanaged: rather than hustling to build the bakeries, the contractor
placed the original grant money in interest-bearing accounts! So, my question
is: what the hell did we accomplish except in making some Egyptian contractors
and a few government officials rich??? Hint: nothing except maybe pissing off
some future Islamicists like Mohammed Ata.

In conclusion, hopefully the US will get out of the economic and political
affairs of other nations, including foreign aid. That's what they want
(excepting the aid, of course) and that's what a helluva lot of us Americans
want. Foreign aid does little good in the long run except promote corruption,
undermine local economies, develop a welfare mentality, and breed contempt. I'll
gladly contribute to emergency relief situations as they arise, as I have in
this particular tsunami disaster, but the hell with government sponsored aid -
let each nation fend for itself.

Happy New Year :-)
Perion

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