Foreign Aid Discussion

Over the weekend, I was engaged in a conversation with one of my good friends over a couple of beers. I know talking politics is probably not the best idea when you have been drinking, but the conversation and debate was not about left or right, liberal or conservative, instead it was about foreign aid. We discussed one another’s views on if the current way of giving foreign aid works or not. Is it good for the United States? Does it help our status and standing in the world? Does it improve the view of our country, when we give foreign aid to said countries? How should the United States go about giving foreign aid? If going about it a certain way, how do we make sure it benefits the United States and her citizens? We disagreed until, I brought up the way I believe the United States should give foreign aid to other nations, and by doing it this way, not only do we help those countries, but we greatly help our nation as well!

It seems that foreign aid given by the United States is split up into two categories; Economic and military aid. In fiscal year 2012 the United States government gave a total of $54.5 billion, which $23.3 billion was military and $31.2 billion was economic. The big question is, does foreign aid work? There really is no evidence that it does work in the world, that even the big study done by Dollar and Burnside; “Aid might work in countries with good governance.” it has been called out as there is non-existent evidence this even works. The theory is that, poor countries with a decent to good government would rise up with aid from the United States and other counties, but it really hasn't done anything at all. So how do we change that? How do we continue to give aid, but insure the country starts improving and starts being recognized as a true growing nation, instead of a third world nation?
My belief is that, we need to stop all together with the giving of economic aid (which usually means lump sums of money to the government), and military aid. What we need to do, is take a look at nations that truly need that aid and put them through a process of application if you will. The nations that should be on the top of the list should be countries which are rich in natural resources. We then take a look at those nations and see which ones are not so volatile and that military forces would not be required to constantly secure objectives. So we now have a shorter list to work with, for a trial run you could say. Now let us say one of these countries is rich in oil, but it has limits due to the poor infrastructure, poorly educated population and really no means of drilling and refining the oil itself. This is where my idea comes into play.

We reach out to this nation, and offer them the new type of foreign aid. The new type of aid will be that American companies will go over to said nation, bringing with them American workers, to build the oil rigs, oil platforms and oil refineries so that the natural resource can be properly extracted and refined. Now, you do need a decent infrastructure to continue oil production and transport, so other American companies will also come, that will help build roads, sewer systems, housing projects, schools, hospitals and so on. While American companies and American workers are over there building all of these things, they will also be training the best and brightest of the local populations to be able to take over once we have left. Instead of just throwing money at countries and never seeing any kind of improvement, we can actually see improvements in the country by doing it this way. Poverty levels will decline, education levels will climb, employment rates will climb, and now a third world nation will be able to sell their abundance of natural resources to the world, which will give the country more money to continue to improve, and grow their nation. 

So how does a foreign aid program like this help the United States and her citizens? Well first of all, we as a nation would be saving $54 billion plus, which can be used for our own country, new roads, better education, paying off debt, grants, scholarships, and so on. Second, it will be American companies that are going over there to construct all of these roads, buildings and everything else. These companies will bring with them American workers, which are being paid good wages for this project. That means more Americans back to work and earning wages, which also means more taxes being collected for our nation. Third, while we are building, then producing materials, fuels and such from their resources, we are not charged one cent on exporting to the United States. Now this doesn't last forever, because that would be unfair, this will only last until the local workforce is up to speed and standard of the American worker currently over there. Fourth benefit, once the local workforce is able to completely take over and manage the operations, and the nation is going in the right direction, the American workers will come back to the United States, and from then on, the United States will get a really nice discount on refined resources being exported from that nation. Fifth and final benefit, not only will Americans be able to have great paying jobs, we will also get free resources for so many years, then discounted resources after the job is done, but our standing around the world will double overnight. Other countries will see what we have done, how we not only helped bring a third world nation out of the darkness and into the international light, but helped our country at the same time, and all of this done without abusing another country and raping it of its resources and people. 

Well that is my idea for a new way and standard of foreign aid, I would love to hear what you readers think and might want to add or take away. Foreign aid is a big issue with a lot of Americans and is always a hot topic in our political world. By sharing our ideas, and coming to an agreement, we might actually be able to change things for the better, for everyone!