Foreign Aid & Transfer Payments

[chiefsmurph]

I had an argument about this with a friend of mine. We had both agreed that the war in iraq is not a good use of government spending. Then he said we should have spent that to help the poor in the US and abroad. I disagreed. He made the point that I wouldn't be saying that if I was poor. He made the example that when kids in Egypt come up to him trying to sell things because their life depends on it, they need foreign aid,

What should have been my next move?

[johnrocks]

Foreign ais as with our foreign policy is as liberal as socialized medicine. If I HAD to choose between Americans or Foreign Nations I will choose Americans but both policies are bankrupting us.

[nickcoons]

I had an argument about this with a friend of mine. We had both agreed that the war in iraq is not a good use of government spending. Then he said we should have spent that to help the poor in the US and abroad. I disagreed. He made the point that I wouldn't be saying that if I was poor.

If you were a surgeon, you wouldn't operate on a member of your own family.

If you were a juror, you wouldn't sit on a trial where you were friends with either party in the case.

The reason is that you would be too emotionally attached, and you would therefore be seen as unqualified to make objective judgments. Likewise, if you were poor, you very likely wouldn't be arguing against government aid going to the poor; you'd be too emotionally attached to make a rational decision. The fact that you are not poor makes you more qualified, not less qualified, to come to a rational conclusion.


He made the example that when kids in Egypt come up to him trying to sell things because their life depends on it, they need foreign aid,

What should have been my next move?

If he said "...they need help" instead of "...they need foreign aid," then I would agree. We've been giving foreign aid to countries for decades and the recipients nations are often worse off because of it. The money goes to the leaders of those countries, which they often use in order to maintain the conditions that made them leaders in the first place.. it doesn't go to the people of that country.

Even if the individual citizens of a country received the money, you have to ask whether or not that really does help. There's the "give a man a fish... teach a man to fish..." proverb.

"As the economist David Friedman (son of the Nobel prize winner) has said, Government can't do anything right; it can't even give money away. As proof that he's right, consider Indians. We Canadians pay $ 20,000 every year to support each Status Indian in this country. That's $ 80,000 for a family of four. Tax-free. What do we get for our money? Poverty. Squalor. Alcoholism. Drug abuse. Child abuse. Premature death. And, of course, we get ceaseless calls for still more money." -- http://www.quebecoislibre.org/000513-9.htm

At the Maricopa County Libertarian Meeting here in Phoenix (which I attend monthly), one of the economists brought up an interesting point. He mentioned that there was a question back at the beginning of the War on Poverty, which was basically.. "what causes poverty?" After careful thought, he realized that that was the wrong question. Our ancestors lived in caves and were extremely impoverished compared to us today. Poverty has been around for quite some time and is sort of the default position of mankind. So the correct question is, "what causes wealth?"

If we're truly interested in helping people in other countries, instead of paying lip service to the cause, then we need to figure out how we can really help. Blindly throwing money at the problem never fixes it. I'm surprised there are still people out there that don't realize that.

[RSLudlum]

He made the point that I wouldn't be saying that if I was poor. He made the example that when kids in Egypt come up to him trying to sell things because their life depends on it, they need foreign aid,

What should have been my next move?

Well did he buy something from the kid, to support the kid's entrepreneurship?? Doesn't your friend's life/family depend on his ability to provide for himself/family?

that's what i would've asked him. ;)