Re: I hate being American

anonskeptic_at_yahoo.com
Date: 01/01/05 

Date: 31 Dec 2004 16:24:33 -0800

Perion wrote:

> 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?]

Perion is either under-educated or thinks that he can fool people into
the tired and disproven claim "the Marshall Plan was aid". #1 There
were strings, kill so-and-so, this-other-so-and-so must win that
election, stop importing food from this set of nations {Nations not
part of Europe or the United States}, etc. #2 More money was spent on
importing food from the US than was ever paid in aid. Funny how we're
smart enough to rob someone and have them thank us for it.

The Marshall plan was a subsidy on American agircultural goods to keep
prices high in America, which helps the war industries adapt to
civilian applications, and as PR. It was a brilliant masterpiece on
both counts. Even today cars are still mostly made out of metal and
are fueled by petroleum oil while people who should know better sing
the praises of the U.S. foreign aid program. Wow, proectionism to
prevent innovation, and PR goodies. The real American way.

You mentioned communision. Did it ever occur to you that when we
crushed the argicultural markets of almost every nation on earth, that
that might have been the driving factor for revolutionary movements?
Did you ever consider that maybe Columbia would be a different palce
today if all the smallhholders hadn't lost their land after the war
just because the US President didn't want Ford to make cars out of US
grown vegetables?

Sometimes I hear people say that we should have a Marshall plan for the
3rd world. But that's impossible without a 4th world to end up paying
for it as the 3rd world paid for the Marshall plan, unless this time
U.S. government decided to ACTUALLY be generous for once. And since
the U.S. is too financially strapped to count every valid vote, I doubt
that will happen any time soon.

> 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.

Did it ever occur to you that when we crushed the argicultural markets
of almost every nation on earth, that that might have been the driving
factor for revolutionary movements? Did you ever consider that maybe
Columbia would be a different palce today if all the smallholders
hadn't lost their land after WWII just because the US President didn't
want U.S. agricultural commoditieis prices to drop low enough that new
industiral uses for them would be found (gosh darn it, left alone the
market would find innovation, that's gotta be stopped).

> 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 will agree that government aid is over-rated, note that I don't think
the Marshall plan was good. For every dollar given to Europe, Europe
was forced to send 2 dollars back to buy food from the U.S. All it did
was make U.S. farmers money, at the expense of the agircultural markets
of the rest of the world. And the U.S. government counts giving
countries money to buy U.S. made weapons and arms "foreign aid", so
that's just a subsidy on those industries. Subsidy subsidy subsidy,
that's all the U.S. seems to know because for the U.S. everything is
about how to make money for the U.S.

And I'm an American citizen living in the U.S. I just know how to read
history and do basic math, but otherwise I'm just like everyone else.
I don't think the U.S. would know a free market if it saw one.
Subsidy, cronyism. Veneer of markets. Veneer of competition. Rule by
the few. Veneer of democracy. The publis schools are the worst. The
outright lies passed as history. Stupendous. Amazing.

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