Here's a problem that is a lot bigger than I had believed. It turns out that American Foreign Aid money has been pretty much thrown away: It turns out that we've thrown away over $1.2 TRILLION (with a T) in foreign aid!
Here's a problem that is a lot bigger than I had believed. It turns out that American Foreign Aid money has been pretty much thrown away:
Massive $1.2 Trillion in Foreign Aid Didn't Work
Britain's Tony Blair will ask President Bush to join him in creating a "Marshall Plan for Africa," pouring vast amounts of aid into African countries. But it's doomed to fail, according to Investor's Business Daily (IBD).
The original Marshall plan cost the U.S. $13 billion – equal to about $100 billion in today's dollars – between 1948 and 1951.
But the countries it aided in postwar Europe had scientists, engineers, skilled laborers and other professionals who were able to lift their nations back to prosperity. They also had governments that worked.
In Africa, on the other hand, most countries are "undemocratic, corrupt, lawless and lacking in property rights," says IBD. "Aid is simply wasted – swallowed whole by corrupt bureaucrats and African warlords."
"Study after study shows that many factors affect how countries climb out of poverty. They include democratic government, low levels of taxes and corruption and clear legal protection for the ownership of property. But not aid."
To make its point, IBD cites a mid-1990s U.N. analysis of U.S. and European foreign aid. The U.N. found that the U.S. spent $1.2 trillion on aid, but all 70 countries that received it were worse off than they were in 1980 – and 43 nations were worse off than in 1970.
Tony Blair suggests spending $25 billion in aid, seven times what the U.S. will spend this year.
But IBD stated: "Virtually no evidence exists that aid does much of anything."
"Aid can actually hurt nations that receive it – a Band-Aid when radical surgery is needed."
In stead of wasting our money on corrupt governments over seas in countries that hate us anyway, how about we spend that money to actually END homelessness in America? How about we spend that money to shore up our border? How about we spend that money on a national campaign for an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States that actually PROTECTS OUR PROPERTY RIGHTS?
We can't police the world, and we can't continue to throw money down the drain of corrupt third world countries.
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