amongst developed countries the US has the lowest spending on international development and humanitarian assistance as a percentage of GDP
Terrorists
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wkmac
Well-Known Member
Of yes they will but not in a way most people are expecting. US Foreign Aid is mostly a huge welfare boondoggle and few people really understand who the true welfare queens are. If for all practical purposes, our gov't is a product itself of and for business interests, what are the chances such foreign aid will ever go away? And on the flipside, what are the odds that domestic public welfare will ever solve the problem it's suppose too when its necessity as a political straw man serves as great political cover so the American people are distracted and never look?
That said, consider the following various opinions from various sources:
From Cato Institute:
"Foreign aid is good for America, or so goes the argument. Just as patriotism is said to be the last refuge of the scoundrel, business is proving to be the last refuge for supporters of a program that was once thought to be doomed by the 1994 election. The GOP-controlled Congress has responded by doing little more than trimming foreign aid.
The World Bank, one of the chief targets of criticism, has run a series of newspaper ads touting U.S. contributions to the International Development Association (IDA), which makes de facto grants to poor nations, as “a good investment.” Why, claimed the Bank, American companies earn a dollar for every dollar provided by Washington.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) makes much the same case for its budget. Declares one propaganda piece, “Close to 80 percent of USAID’s grants and contracts go directly to American firms and nongovernmental organizations.”
Even more fervent has been the pitch that foreign assistance generates exports. National Security Adviser Anthony Lake touts Washington’s international largesse as “expanding and opening markets for American goods and services.”
Kill “Foreign Assistance”for American Companies
From Harper's:
"Four chief executives whose government-funded non-profit corporations are paid to deliver U.S. foreign assistance earned more than half a million dollars in 2007, a USA TODAY review of public tax records shows. Although President Obama and Congress placed a $500,000 cap on salaries at companies getting taxpayer bailouts, there is no such restriction on those that subsist on federal grants — even those delivering aid to some of the world’s poorest regions…
“It conflicts with most people’s notion of what a non-profit organization is about when they’re paying themselves salaries that are several times higher than what a U.S. Cabinet secretary would earn,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who chairs the subcommittee that funds foreign aid.
The U.S. Agency for International Development relies on a cadre of for-profit companies and tax-exempt groups to deliver foreign assistance programs, which Obama says has gone awry. “Western consultants and administrative costs end up gobbling huge percentages of our aid overall,” Obama said to the news website allAfrica.com in July.
Salaries at for-profit USAID contractors are not disclosed, but non-profit agencies must report their CEO pay on public tax returns posted at Guidestar.org. USA TODAY examined total CEO compensation of the 10 largest recipients of foreign aid grants and contracts that also derive at least 70% of their revenue from U.S. taxpayers. Each one receives a 501(c)3 charitable exemption from federal taxes. The 10 firms received approximately $4.2 billion in foreign aid grants and contracts over the past three years, government records show. An understaffed USAID has become “a check-writing agency,” Leahy said."
Foreign Aid Making American CEOs Very Rich
From Journal of World Affairs:
The full report offered a darker picture than this euphemistic summary, documenting a near-total failure. It also showed that USAID had handed the project over to a contractor and then paid little attention. Unfortunately, the same can be said for almost every foreign-aid project undertaken in Afghanistan since the war began eleven years ago.
In a recent quarterly report, the US special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction said that, when security for aid workers is figured in, the total amount of nonmilitary funds Washington has appropriated since 2002 “is approximately $100 billion”—more than the US has ever spent to rebuild a country. That estimate came out in July. Since then, Congress has appropriated another $16.5 billion for “reconstruction.” And all of that has not bought the United States or the Afghans a single sustainable institution or program.
It would be easy to blame all of this on the Afghans, and of course the state’s corrupt, ineffectual government is playing an important role. But the United States, its aid agencies, and its contractors carry a lion’s share of blame. A few weeks after Hillary Clinton took office as secretary of state in 2009, she was despairing about the effectiveness of aid to Afghanistan: “There is very little credibility for what was invested,” she said. “It’s heartbreaking.” From that day forward, she promised, the government would “look at every single dollar, as to how it’s spent and where it’s going, and trying to track the outcome.”
Well, almost two years later, when Pentagon Inspector General Gordon Heddell was testifying before Congress, Representative John friend. Tierney, a Massachusetts Democrat, asked him about still another case when a contractor overbilled the government—by more than $500 million this time. Heddell acknowledged: “Obviously this is an example of just about how bad it can get. And, clearly, this happened. It wasn’t a well designed, well thought out contract.”
Money Pit: The Monstrous Failure of US Aid to Afghanistan
From Institute of Policy Studies:
First, the situation in Egypt is helpful in making clear how U.S. foreign aid functions. In international development circles, there’s a debate about whether foreign aid actually works. On the political scene, a variety of doubters, especially those on the right, rail against corruption, mismanagement, and dependency—arguing that aid sent abroad is a giant liberal boondoggle.
But a huge percentage of U.S. foreign aid is not meant to ease poverty or foster humane development, nor is it backed by any progressive intention. Rather, it is given out basically in the form of bribes to various regimes so that they will align themselves with U.S. geopolitical interests. As Juan Cole further notes in his Democracy Now interview, a large amount of aid money meant for foreign countries actually serves to subsidize U.S. corporations, which are contracted to produce goods or services (or armaments or farm surplus) that are then sent abroad. The actual utility of these things for aid recipients is questionable, and any benefits to the poor in recipient countries are at best indirect.
Egypt Protests Shine Light on How U.S. Profits From Foreign Aid
From Foundation for Economic Education:
But the summit largely ignored how corruption is fueled by Western governments, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Foreign aid has long been notorious for breeding kleptocracies — governments of thieves. Economic studies have revealed that corrupt governments receive more foreign aid.
Fourteen years ago, President George W. Bush promised to reform foreign aid: “We won’t be putting money into a society which is not transparent and corrupt.” (He probably meant “corruption-free.”) But US aid programs — which cost taxpayers more than $40 billion a year — continue to bankroll many of the world’s most crooked regimes (according to ratings by Transparency International) — including Uzbekistan, Haiti and Kenya.
US Foreign Aid Is Jet Fuel for Corruption
These are but just a micro view of the larger situation. The problem with multi-national corporate welfare under the guise of Foreign Aid is huge and this is only a VERY small hint of the tip of the iceberg. One has to read across a huge spectrum of documentation and opinions on foreign aid to begin to assemble the puzzle pieces and see the bigger picture for what it really is.
George Orwell once said that, "War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it."
I myself would add further, "Foreign Aid to a Foreign Country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it."
From my own reading and research concerning US Foreign Aid, the latter statement I've concluded is true.
BrownArmy
Well-Known Member
soz, not my website...
BrownArmy
Well-Known Member
what do you think?
the ACLU and snowden say more free speech is the solution to fascist speech.
im not an expert on this stuff. but ill say canada is a pretty
ed up country in terms of what we fear; we think the most dangerous country is iran. the majority of the world thinks US is the most dangerous country.i think islamophobia is no different than what hte germans thought of the jews. the media is guilty. you should be afraid of your government; they commit far more terrorism and are more dangerous. im guessing the reason you have radical muslims is because you have attacked and ruined these countries for a long time.
try peace and see what happens
Catatonic
Nine Lives
So what you are telling us is that Canadians don't agree with you either?im not an expert on this stuff. but ill say canada is a pretty
whether alot or a few people believe in something doesnt make it true...
Catatonic
Nine Lives
What is truth?
i forgot and ive read a few philosophy books.
Catatonic
Nine Lives
Me too.
It's something we are rarely exposed to or recognise as such.
I guess if you don't use it, you lose it.
teleSUR English @telesurenglish 14h14 hours ago
On the Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice, Argentina remembers the right-wing dictatorship that led to the disapperance of 30,000.
On the Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice, Argentina remembers the right-wing dictatorship that led to the disapperance of 30,000.
Glenn GreenwaldVerified account @ggreenwald 16h16 hours ago
Glenn Greenwald Retweeted Alex Emmons
Trump vowed to bomb even more savagely & recklessly in Syria than US was already doing, and this is exactly what's happening now:
Glenn Greenwald added,
Alex EmmonsVerified account @AlexanderEmmons
The US is killing more and more civilians in Syria and Iraq. Look at the data, from @airwars: Airwars
67 replies 856 retweets 538 likes
Glenn Greenwald Retweeted Alex Emmons
Trump vowed to bomb even more savagely & recklessly in Syria than US was already doing, and this is exactly what's happening now:
Glenn Greenwald added,
Alex EmmonsVerified account @AlexanderEmmons
The US is killing more and more civilians in Syria and Iraq. Look at the data, from @airwars: Airwars
67 replies 856 retweets 538 likes
Catatonic
Nine Lives
teleSUR English @telesurenglish 14h14 hours ago
On the Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice, Argentina remembers the right-wing dictatorship that led to the disapperance of 30,000.
Glenn GreenwaldVerified account @ggreenwald 16h16 hours ago
Glenn Greenwald Retweeted Alex Emmons
Trump vowed to bomb even more savagely & recklessly in Syria than US was already doing, and this is exactly what's happening now:
Glenn Greenwald added,
Alex EmmonsVerified account @AlexanderEmmons
The US is killing more and more civilians in Syria and Iraq. Look at the data, from @airwars: Airwars
67 replies 856 retweets 538 likes
Putin' America First!
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if you think about it there are clues when you being manipulated:
in terms of local corporate tv news they show fire, accidents, shootings, sports none of which have not much affect on your life whatsoever.
and then i am very skeptical of anything i read from someone ive never heard before, i only read stuff from people who are referred to from someone else i already trust.
i think listening to a variety of people (even though i am biased towards left wing), comparing things, and questioning things can lead people to some kind of truth.
Catatonic
Nine Lives
I can't disagree ... I basically don't trust anything on TV or even newspapers.
I think everyone realizes this now and like you, distills the news from all the noise and disinformation coming at them.
yes i was suprised to hear recently trust in the media was only 39%.
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