Does Foreign Aid Actually Work?

--Caller questions the effectiveness of foreign aid

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Broadcast on January 24, 2020

#davidpakmanshow #foreignaid #economics

[SpartanJ]

Fun fact: Most foreign aid to Africa ends up leaving the continent in the form of capital flight, making Africa a net creditor to the rest of the world when considering private accounts.

[cheshirekershaw]

What, you should teach people to fish instead of gifting fishes? Outstanding breakthrough in foreign aid strategy.

[TheLateral]

It doesn't. The government takes money and they keep it

[Twigmannn]

There isn't a yes or no answer. Some programs are very effective, while others do very little or make things worse.

[eagle]

USAID is a clutch instead of actually helping anyone because the US requires other favours. Being indebted to the US is very dangerous

[firerunner]

Capitalists: how do we fix these world problems with capitalism?

Foreign aid is just bribes to let greedy corporations exploit the natural resources of poor countries.

[AnexoRialto]

Foreign aid can be effective, but there are 2 problems: US corruption and onerous restrictions on the aid, and corruption of the governments of the countries receiving the aid. Small amounts of money in collaborative projects with local people really help long term. Disaster relief is also effective to save lives.

[gunner]

Yes it does. A good aid programme is far more effective and massively cheaper ( no comparrison in fact) than battalions of troops on the ground or an aircraft carrier on station. Every senior soldier knows this as does every diplomat and decent politician.

[Penname]

Someone asked how we fix this problem with capitalism. You can’t because it’s not a capitalist vs socialist problem. The problem is the government of these poor nations are corrupt. Most countries that receive foreign aid are poor but have ver ineffective governments with too many rules that are meant to hinder corruption but end up helping create it for those who have money, especially with a Swiss bank account. The solution is to replace the governments with ones with basic rules and broad parameters. For example, Botswana tackles corruption by making it harder for corrupt politicians to stay in power while easier for everyday people to go to work, go to school, and get healthcare. The first president Seretse Khama also managed the use of the country’s diamond mines correctly so that industry boomed and the government could collect taxes directly without so much red tape.

Again the problem is the government not the market. When the government is ineffective and corrupt, trying to solve the problem using the market within that system will achieve little. But be careful, overthrowing a corrupt government can often lead to an even more authoritarian regime or at worse total anarchy.

[peterinbrat]

The push is for urbanization and getting an industrial base. But it's done at the cost of food security. It creates a need for imported commodity crops while using their own land for exported crops.

[bombsingaza]

The question of the twenty first century; how do you actually create sustainable progress, what is the bridge to self sufficiency, autonomy, independence, life quality? One of my teachers at university said” education” so I decided to take on godchildren, two at the time, from all over the world, I hope it meant something....

[wesleyrodgers]

Remove it and see what happens. Not recomended.

[brendaaraba]

As a Sierra Leonean - no it doesn't help. So no thanks

[domjospal]

I'm always curious why people talk about economic systems, as if they are somehow divorced from the fact that they are just names economists give to the results of a political system that decides the distribution of wealth for its population. TrueDemocracyNow.org

[jamesheald]

you can send money (fiat freshly printed $) oversea as foreign aid and it cost you nothing. (Russian tries this using Trump.)

The trouble is... will you send too much to too many countries they start spending the dollars between them sleeves, where as we want the dollars spent here in the USA.

[CarFreeSegnitz]

No, aid only corrupts the recipient country. The recipient government gets hooked on the aid and makes them less dependent on their own people.

Solution: fair trade with private sector individuals and companies within impoverished countries. To super-charge development transfer IP without strings and follow-up with fair trade. Make it illegal to abet capital flight. Encourage a high top marginal tax rate on income and lead by example in the developed world. Aggressively fight against banking secrecy.

[averylogan]

What's up David! I'm the first one to see this cool video!