Foreign aid should be stopped

[Herecius]

Yeah, I already said you're right

I'd certainly be willing to say that the US spends far, far too much money in general, too, though. Very inefficiently to boot. But I'd say that foreign aid is probably the least of those inefficiencies... much of our wasted money is in the social programs the OP says we need to dump more cash into, imo.

That and defense. Especially defense. Hell, we spend more on a single one of those fancy-ass, totally useless and mostly broken, brand new F-35 Raptors than we do on foreign aid entirely. Instead of dropping foreign aid, how about we stop spending several hundred billion dollars on a broken-ass plane?

[Phlegethon]

Reasons why foreign aid should be stopped:

• You cannot properly monitor how your country's money is spent, which often leads to heavy corruption.
• A country that has homeless, disabled and mentally ill citizens living within its borders should concentrate on them as opposed to giving money to foreign countries.
• Money that could be better spent on health, education and infrastructure is instead used to prolong (not resolve) a problem that is irreparable in its current form.
• Giving money unconditionally to another country means the receiving country has less incentive to be self-sustaining.
• If a country cannot survive without aid from other countries, then it should not exist as an independent state.

It might be a cold pill to swallow, but the realisation that the above arguments hold substance is true.

You are "irreparably" (ikr) stupid.
They don't hold any substance.

You know most of them need aid because your part of the world stole and still steals all their natural resources and made up their "borders".
Probably you don't though.

[Kalis]

You are "irreparably" (ikr) stupid.
They don't hold any substance.

You know most of them need aid because your part of the world stole and still steals all their natural resources and made up their "borders".
Probably you don't though.

Not really relevant, we don't give aid out of a sense of guilt, we give it because it serves our self interests.

Whilst you may feel guilty about the past, I'm more interested in the future.

[Wildtree]

I'd certainly be willing to say that the US spends far, far too much money in general, too, though. Very inefficiently to boot. But I'd say that foreign aid is probably the least of those inefficiencies... much of our wasted money is in the social programs the OP says we need to dump more cash into, imo.

That and defense. Especially defense. Hell, we spend more on a single one of those fancy-ass, totally useless and mostly broken, brand new F-35 Raptors than we do on foreign aid entirely. Instead of dropping foreign aid, how about we stop spending several hundred billion dollars on a broken-ass plane?

agreed.
Here's the reality:
The US fell into a meta depression, similar to that of Germany, after WW1.
It did, just as Germany, struggle to get out of that hole. Starvation and unemployment rampant.
And then, the tide turned.. Hitler entered the scene. He brought Germany out of the shitter by creating an unprecedented military industrial complex.
The US copied that idea, and started the same thing. As Hitler started to rage war over Europe, the US cashed in on that war big time.
It perfected it's own military industrial complex. Took in orders from other nations, and produced military equipment in unbelievable amounts.
And that was the start of a system that dominates the USA's economy still today. The military industrial complex.
Hence the immense spending on defense budget. It must be spent, else the construct collapses. It binds tens of millions of people's jobs to it.

[Herecius]

agreed.
Here's the reality:
The US fell into a meta depression, similar to that of Germany, after WW1.
It did, just as Germany, struggle to get out of that hole. Starvation and unemployment rampant.
And then, the tide turned.. Hitler entered the scene. He brought Germany out of the shitter by creating an unprecedented military industrial complex.
The US copied that idea, and started the same thing. As Hitler started to rage war over Europe, the US cashed in on that war big time.
It perfected it's own military industrial complex. Took in orders from other nations, and produced military equipment in unbelievable amounts.
And that was the start of a system that dominates the USA's economy still today. The military industrial complex.
Hence the immense spending on defense budget. It must be spent, else the construct collapses. It binds tens of millions of people's jobs to it.

Yeah. No matter what a lot of blowhard Internet commentators might believe, it's a lot more complicated than simply lowering the defense budget. You lower the defense budget, and you put a lot of people out of work. Millions of people.

But I still believe it's got to be done, if even gradually. The industries currently tuned towards catering to the military need to be steered in other directions over however many years it takes, imo.

[Wildtree]

Not really relevant, we don't give aid out of a sense of guilt, we give it because it serves our self interests.

yep...... otherwise we wouldn't have human catastrophes that could be easily fixed by us, but we look away while millions die, times and again.
yet if we don't get anything out of it, why bother... that's the general habit.

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Yeah. No matter what a lot of blowhard Internet commentators might believe, it's a lot more complicated than simply lowering the defense budget. You lower the defense budget, and you put a lot of people out of work. Millions of people.

But I still believe it's got to be done, if even gradually. The industries currently tuned towards catering to the military need to be steered in other directions over however many years it takes, imo.

Oh, indeed it has to change, gradually. The current path is comparable to a lemming going uphill... Once at the top, all you can do is jump into your demise.
History speaks a clear language, and the US isn't immune to that. Every single superpower in existence, crumbled.

[Sodia]

Not really relevant, we don't give aid out of a sense of guilt, we give it because it serves our self interests.

Whilst you may feel guilty about the past, I'm more interested in the future.

You give it becouse you make the mess in the first place.

[Kalis]

You give it becouse you make the mess in the first place.

No we don't.

That may be why you think we should give it, but it isn't the reason we give it.

[Ripster42]

Uh, all of the food aid we provide is essentially farmer subsidies. Food aid charities wish we'd give them money because they'd be able to help a lot more people for cheaper if we stopped giving them foreign food and built their farming infrastructure, buy local food, save on shipping costs. But it would murder our domestic farming. So we give them food. It's kinda foolish to even consider the food aid we give as foreign aid as it helps our local economy.

[Wildtree]

No we don't.

That may be why you think we should give it, but it isn't the reason we give it.

No excuses... Everyone knows Malta is the overlord of the World

[Independent voter]

Assuming this is about the US, since most threads like this tend to be, it should be known, specifically known by you, that the amount of the US budget that goes to foreign aid is almost nothing. Seriously next to nothing compared to the overall budget. It's less than 1%, last I looked.

Our defense budget is a foreign aid budget, all those bases in Europe and Asia. Our large defense budget means countries around the world who are aligned with us don't have to spend as much on foreign aid and can spend the savings on social programs or other things.

[unbound]

You might be surprised to hear that we get aid from other countries too...

http://listverse.com/2015/01/14/10-s...g-foreign-aid/


I know this will be a shock to some, but, as a species, we got to where we are today by helping each other out.

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Our defense budget is a foreign aid budget, all those bases in Europe and Asia. Our large defense budget means countries around the world who are aligned with us don't have to spend as much on foreign aid and can spend the savings on social programs or other things.

rofl... I don't care who you are, now that's funny!