Foreign Aid, The U.S.A. and the World

[BlkbrryTheGreat]

We all know that the U.S.A. gives out alot of foreign aid each and every year, both public and private. I'm just wondering how many people would starve/freeze/whatever to death if all this finical and material aid suddenly stopped. (Like if we said, to hell with giving away stuff, most of you hate us anyway.)

[Exonerate]

It would at least have SOME impact... I know that a lot of our foreign aid isn't being used very efficiently, or is used for the wrong purposes.

[Sea Skimmer]

Quite a few. Though while the US gives out more foreign aid then any other nation by a wide margin, as a percentage of GDP it's very low. Almost every Western nation has the US beat for goverment funds.

I have no idea what it looks like when we factor in private donations though.

[Enlightenment]

Last I looked into this, the bulk of US foreign aid goes into military assistance either in the form of donated weapons or purchasing subsidies that wind up in the hands of the US defense industry in very short order. The situation might have changed or I might be misremembering, but it's not too much of a stretch to consider the possibility that cutting off all foreign aid might result in fewer people getting killed as the US wouldn't be giving guns to the kind of people who like to wear their sunglasses indoors.


That said, I can confidently say that the majority of all foreign aid given by most countries comes back in the form of contracts to domestic business and amounts to little more than a cleverly disguised subsidy for domestic business. In most cases foreign aid is not very helpful in the long term as it does not foster the enlargement or development of an economic base in the recipiant country.

Another foreign aid myth is that foreign aid payments make up a significant portion of the US budget. This is false. Foreign aid is a line item lost down in the weeds, far, far below the major outlays in debt maintainance, entitlements (social security etc) and defense spending. Contrary to the propaganda generated by various rightwingnut groups, the US is not shoveling money out of the country like there's no tomorrow.

[Sea Skimmer]

Unlikely. The vast majority of that military aid goes to Egypt and Israel. Egypt currently isn't fighting anyone, and 95% of what goes to Israel is used to buy things like F-16's and other heavy weapons. Those do get used against the Palestinians, but removing them from the IDF's inventory would just cause them to use other weapons. However most of the alternatives are less precise and would result in far more deaths.

If the IDF just used 155 artillery in place of Hellfire's and Mavericks we'd easily have another 500 dead.

[Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi]

Is it true that a lot of the foreign aid money given to African countries does not reach the people it's supposed to reach, and that despite giving billions of dollars to them, the impoverished groups haven't improved much?

[Colonel Olrik]

Is it true that a lot of the foreign aid money given to African countries does not reach the people it's supposed to reach, and that despite giving billions of dollars to them, the impoverished groups haven't improved much?

It depends of the countries. You cannot generalize. Some of them are just hopelessly corrupt. Take Angola, for instance. They have the potential to be richer than everybody. Oil, gold and diamonds just waiting for the crop. The elite lives in ubber luxury. Yet, they live way worse than they lived thirty years ago, when Portugal ruled over there. They don't feed the population because they don't want to.

Moçambique is the opposite. They are low on natural resources, yet (or for that reason!) they're at peace since quite long ago and have an almost functional democracy. The civil society is getting stronger and the country is attracting investment. Yet, they still have hunger problems, specially because of the giant floods that have attacked them recently.

I'm all for helping the second, but I'm quite fed up with the first.

[Sea Skimmer]

Is it true that a lot of the foreign aid money given to African countries does not reach the people it's supposed to reach, and that despite giving billions of dollars to them, the impoverished groups haven't improved much?

It depends of the countries. You cannot generalize. Some of them are just hopelessly corrupt. Take Angola, for instance. They have the potential to be richer than everybody. Oil, gold and diamonds just waiting for the crop. The elite lives in ubber luxury. Yet, they live way worse than they lived thirty years ago, when Portugal ruled over there. They don't feed the population because they don't want to.

Moçambique is the opposite. They are low on natural resources, yet (or for that reason!) they're at peace since quite long ago and have an almost functional democracy. The civil society is getting stronger and the country is attracting investment. Yet, they still have hunger problems, specially because of the giant floods that have attacked them recently.

I'm all for helping the second, but I'm quite fed up with the first.

Mozambique actually achieved self sufficiently in food a year or two before the flooding wiped everything out. They where lucky though, after the Portuguese pulled out they faced some small scale problems from South Africa backed guerrillas but never anything major.

Angola is just awful. The fighting has ended but goverment military spending is going up.

[TrailerParkJawa]

Quite a few. Though while the US gives out more foreign aid then any other nation by a wide margin, as a percentage of GDP it's very low. Almost every Western nation has the US beat for goverment funds.

I have no idea what it looks like when we factor in private donations though.

I dont know how much private individuals send overseas in the form of charity or money back home. But I know some countries like Mexico and Cuba are seriously dependant on the flow of American dollars into their economy from relatives living in the States.

[Raptor 597]

Yeah, Bush i still trying too strangehold Cuba we still got that trade embargo. Money from Louisiana Rice would us here in Louisiana, but the Goverment wants too keeep Fieldo under wraps. Not that he would do anything.

[HemlockGrey]

specially because of the giant floods that have attacked them recently.

They were attacked by giant squids? WTF?

[CmdrWilkens]

We all know that the U.S.A. gives out alot of foreign aid each and every year, both public and private. I'm just wondering how many people would starve/freeze/whatever to death if all this finical and material aid suddenly stopped. (Like if we said, to hell with giving away stuff, most of you hate us anyway.)

Many more would likely be hurt by a drying up of US aid but it'd be hard to put numbers on it. THough this does remind me of a John Stewart monolouge on the episode after another "the World doesn't like America" survey came out. It was basically: The US spends billions each year in foreign aid so of course everyone hates us.

[Sea Skimmer]

specially because of the giant floods that have attacked them recently.

They were attacked by giant squids? WTF?

How the fuck do you get squid from floods? Your town has a lot of LSD floating around it but you never struck me as the type.....

[Raptor 597]

specially because of the giant floods that have attacked them recently.

They were attacked by giant squids? WTF?

How the fuck do you get squid from floods? Your town has a lot of LSD floating around it but you never struck me as the type.....

[HemlockGrey]

How the fuck do you get squid from floods? Your town has a lot of LSD floating around it but you never struck me as the type.....

Well, I've been playing RA2 a lot, and now have an ungodly fear of the Giant Squid. Mental thing.

And my neighborhood is perfectly clean!

[Sea Skimmer]

How the fuck do you get squid from floods? Your town has a lot of LSD floating around it but you never struck me as the type.....

Well, I've been playing RA2 a lot, and now have an ungodly fear of the Giant Squid. Mental thing.

And my neighborhood is perfectly clean!

Hahahahahah, wait you don't seriously believe that do you acid boy? The real question is are you clean?





Your fleet must suck if your having any problems with Squid, dolphins are for the cost insanely effective against them and everything else. Don't even both with destroyers, Just carriers surrounded by dozens of dolphins and a couple AEGIS cruisers.

[Sea Skimmer]

We all know that the U.S.A. gives out alot of foreign aid each and every year, both public and private. I'm just wondering how many people would starve/freeze/whatever to death if all this finical and material aid suddenly stopped. (Like if we said, to hell with giving away stuff, most of you hate us anyway.)

Many more would likely be hurt by a drying up of US aid but it'd be hard to put numbers on it. THough this does remind me of a John Stewart monolouge on the episode after another "the World doesn't like America" survey came out. It was basically: The US spends billions each year in foreign aid so of course everyone hates us.

What show was this on?

[CmdrWilkens]

Many more would likely be hurt by a drying up of US aid but it'd be hard to put numbers on it. Though this does remind me of a John Stewart monolouge on the episode after another "the World doesn't like America" survey came out. It was basically: The US spends billions each year in foreign aid so of course everyone hates us.

What show was this on?

The Daily Show, sometime between early last week and the week before that.