Re: What America Owes The World...
IronLionZion wrote:
In reality we give only .1% percent of GNP to foreign aid. The generally agreed upon goal for industrialized nations is about .7%. In fact, the United States dedicates a lower percentage to foreign aid than any other industrialized nation on Earth. We give only about 10.9 billion dollars a year. To put this in perspective, the Netherlands, a relatively small nation with only about 5 million people, gives 3.2 billion - almost a third of what America contributes. We can find 87 billion to fight a war, but its nearly impossible to muster up 1 billion to fight AID's.
While we Americans harp about our own poor - which are a legitimate issue as well - 2 billion people around the world live in poverty everyday of their life, trapped in chronic malnourishment. Three billion live on less than two dollars a day. In Africa 2.3 million die every year of Aids; the infection rate continues to increase; the numbers of infected approaching 40% in some countries. This is simply unacceptable.
First of all, the Netherlands has nearly 16 million people, not 5 million. And yes, we spend 0.8 % of our GDP to foreign aid. But the question should be, is foreign aid the best way to help the poor countries get rich and enjoy the same benefits that we enjoy today?
I think not, foreign aid is only temporary, you give the people money to buy food, but the next time they are hungry again ... it has no structural effect.
The best solution to help people all around the world is to drop protective legislation, what i mean by that is legislation that protects own industry and farmers. The developing countries have a huge advantage in labour costs, they can produce many things a lot cheaper than the OEDC countries. It is only because the US, EU, JAPAN and other rich countries prohibit this advantage because of barriers/quota's/subsidies, etc.
It is really a huge contradiction, one one site you beat the crap out of these countries and than you throw them a nickel in the form of development aid.
For a comparison, the money the developing countries got from trade in the last 10 years, equals the money the developing countries got from development aid in the last
50 years. And as time progresses trade will grow exponentially.
Quote:
Some contend that the United States owes the world nothing. They say we are a benevolent and generous super-power. What we give, we give freely. We deserve more recognition and thankfulness. Africa should do more for itself. The world's unhappiness is its own fault.
What every countries owns to another country is a fair chance to participate in world trade.
The reason why we don't allow fair trade is because we fear of losing our low skilled jobs to developing countries. What the rich countries have to do is move on, educate people better and focus on industries where higher skilled jobs are needed. Let competion decide where the jobs go and focus on the sectors that are competitive, it will be a win-win situation, for the rich as for the poor.
I am sorry if this has been mentioned before because i didn't read the complete topic.
