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The benefits of foreign aid
Foreign aid and international relations
The benefits of foreign aid
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Foreign aid is often regarded as a means to help the poor and undeveloped nations. Foreign aid is can often be called as official development assistance. The notion of foreign aid can be understood as the transfer of money, goods or technical knowledge, from the developed to developing nations. Aids or Assistance can come in numerous forms such as humanitarian, emergency assistance, food, military and so on. In some cases foreign aid, has rewarded a great share and helping people in need around the world. Aid is motivated for military, political, economic commercial or humanitarian proposes. Foreign aid is usually used as an instrument of promoting and developing a nation to gain sustainability and growth. Moreover, foreign aid mainly aims in helping people in social, economic, and political aspects of various nations. A country receiving foreign aid helps in the overall establishment provided if it’s used properly.
The main reason why most developing countries clearly seeks and accepts foreign aid is for the purpose of improvement of their economic status. The foreign aid they receive helps them improve in the investment sector, encourage free enterprise, as well as gives them the ability to participate in the international trade, and enables them to develop infrastructures and supplement the lack of domestic resource such as foreign exchange. It can also encourage human capital, which is “ the knowledge and skills that workers acquire through education, training, and experience” (Mankiw, 542). Hence, economic aid, production sectors, infrastructure, contributes to an economic growth by increasing domestic investment, stimulating and helping to improve economies.
In the eyes of the world community foreign aid can be an importa...
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...st believe that foreign aid does more harm than good. Unlike his counterparts Jeffery Sachs who strongly believe foreign aid is effective and can lead to a path of sustainability and growth.
When seeing both sides of the argument if whether or not foreign aid is beneficial for African countries, we can see strong and weak parts. In the case of seeing the advantages of foreign aid we can some what see that giving more money to devolving nation leads to dependency and causing problem mainly corruption. Same goes for Easterly that he should also realize that more money in fact may help the poor and escape poverty trap. Overall, aid coming through in any forms foreign aid lenders should mandate reform and requirements to take out loans. Finally, nation’s government should be hold check and balances and accountability so that the aid is dispersed to countries needs.
The United States continues to give around $550 billion in aid to other countries each year, making America the world's top donor by far (Richardson). While the United States government only supplies $252 billion to needy Americans each year. Former Assistant to the President for Communications, Patrick Buchanan said, "The idea that we should send endless streams of tax dollars all over the world, while our own country sinks slowly in an ocean of debt is, well, ludicrous" (Foreign Aid). The United States need to give money to support the domestic impoverished rather than supporting developing foreign countries because the poverty and homelessness in America is increasing faster than the aid necessary to reduce this trend. Part of the reason that the United States should aid the domestic impoverished is that some foreign countries cannot be trusted with the money given to them and in certain cases, the money intended to aid countries are harmful for that country’s well-being.
The duties and responsibilities of the fire department are most importantly responding to fires and other emergencies that involve the assistance from the department such as vehicle accidents, flooding, emergency rescue, and first aid response. When it comes to a fire departments duties and responsibilities when it comes to mutual aid agreements it is to coordinate planning, multiply the response resources available to any one jurisdiction, ensure timely arrival of aid, arrange for specialized resources, and minimize administrative conflict and litigation post-response.
Before extending aid to other countries, we should focus on our more prevalent domestic problems. Patrick Buchanan said, "The idea that we should send endless streams of tax dollars all over the world, while our own country sinks slowly in an ocean of debt is, well, ludicrous. Almost every American knows it, feels it, believes it." The topic of United States foreign policy is greatly debated, and a decision on how to handle is very hard to come by. It seems as if we are finally leaning towards less aid to foreign countries, as we try to cut wasteful spending. The American government is finally opening its eyes to the realization that all of the aid we are giving out may not be worth it. Our priority should be to help our homeless, instead of other countries' poor.
... aid across the world. As we have established that we do have an obligation to redistribute globally in a cosmopolitan perspective, distributing wealth however we may need to rethink what the best assistance is. Amaryta Sen conveys that before sending aid to the third world state, we would need to fully understand the limitation of freedom in the country. Redistributing wealth to global countries requires it to be evaluated by the economic shortage that they are suffering and to see whether it will be efficient in the long run. The more effective ways to contribute would be to international relief agencies or NGO’s that would pursue international development projects to help those in poverty or the alternative option by Tom Campbell’s idea of a ‘Global humanitarian levy’ which suggests a more appropriate taxation on all citizens to collectively aid those in need.
Jamieson, D. (2005). Duties to the Distant: Aid, Assistance, and Intervention in the Developing World. Journal Of Ethics, 9(1/2), 151-170. doi:10.1007/s10892-004-3324-9
I decided to talk about Economic Hitman because since I opened the web site, I got attracted by this quote “Dedicated to transforming the world into a sustainable, just and peaceful home where all beings can thrive”, by John Perkins who is an American author and one of the famous economist person in the world because he claims to have played a role in an supposed process of economic establishment of Third World countries on behalf of what he shows as a section of the United States government. His best book is Confessions of an Economic HitMan that was published in 2004. John Perkins worked directly with the World Bank, IMF, and many other global financial institutions and corporations, but he was one of the economic Hitman. According to Perkins, he described himself as a former economic hit man who was highly paid professional who cheated countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars; however, he quit his job because of morally and ethically reasons in the 1980s. He stated, "When 9/11 struck, I had a change of heart." also, he think that it is illegal and it is wrong to play such a key role in creating world empire at the expense of the less advantaged around the world. According to Perkins, he says that he was actually an “"Economic HitMan." His job was to convince countries that are strategically important to the United States to accept enormous loans for infrastructure development and to make sure that the lucrative projects were contracted to U.S. corporations”. In Other word, Perkins says that his job requires him to work to the United States in order to convince other countries to serve purposes for the government of the United States by influencing them to borrow enormous loans from U.S.
Communism and democracy have been considered political opposites and obvious opponents in the realm of nationwide government. The United States has a clear stance on both: quite simply, the latter is ideal and the former is the worst form of government that can be utilized in the state. Communism was viewed as the enemy of democracy and thus of the United States and any state allowed to prosper as a communist nation posed not only a threat to the United States but to democracies everywhere. For years, the United States adopted a strong proclivity for fighting all forms of communism, foreign or domestic, and attempting to install a democratic environment. We saw the fight against communism take place in Korea, Greece and ultimately culminated with the Vietnam war. Although the “falling domino principle” has since been proven nothing more than rhetoric and the threat of communism is no longer pressing, the United States has seemed to retain an interesting ideology – the need to intervene.
He states that large inflows of foreign aid can potentially change local politics for the worst. He furthers this argument by declaring that the main difference between rich and poor countries are the benefits, such as a fair legal system, that paying taxes gives citizens in the rich countries. He progresses and declares that since several countries that depend on large amounts of foreign aid, do not depend on the citizens to pay for programs, the government is less likely to develop programs that benefit its people. Thus the rulers make decisions and rule without needing the people’s consent. August Dean also explains why it is difficult for donors to stop foreign aid to corrupt leaders. He lists the donors may either be unaware of the issues, ending support may interfere with the donor country’s agenda or the fear that other countries may step in as the reasons why. Dean also mentions that foreign aid has led to positive results, but he cautions that it should be weighed with the potential negative
The United States should assist developing Countries through means, that are necessary to reduce poverty, to sustain their population, and to increase the GDP per Capital across the country. If we are hungry, or we are in need of a necessity, then we could just buy it. But, people in Central Africa's Republic or Burundi whose GDP per capita is less than one thousand dollars can't buy that necessity. So, we as a country who regards equality and justice among all very highly should help those in need. To help those who need it and those who deserve a chance that needs it. By helping them survive to the next day, by helping them gain wealth, by helping them move up the social and economic ladder, and by helping them help others who are in need.
...y agendas in that they attempt to help countries in need and promote economic stability and development. However, their one size fits all policies can sometimes harm the countries they are trying to help, especially for developing countries. Their neoliberal policies often create problems in the soft sectors including education, health, and housing. This problem could be credited to the institutions, especially the IMF, which are largely comprised of macro-economists who specialize in short-term macro-economic stabilization, when developing countries need fundamental reform for the long term (Murtaza 2). These institutions should also take into account the unique circumstances of each individual country they work with in order to create policies that cater to the specific interests of each country and prevent as many negative consequences for the people as possible.
International trade of developing countries is the classic weak vs. strong dichotomy, and underdeveloped or developing countries cannot make it solely on their own efforts; the have nots need help from the haves. Developed nations trumpet the claim that the answer to developing nations’ international trade issues is untrammeled or open market activity as opposed to government intervention by developed nations’ governments. This begs the question as to what extent the governments of developed nations are or should be responsible for supporting developing countries’ growth in international trading markets. Often the protectionist actions of developed nations’ governments to enhance their own international trading activities are the very hindrances faced by the developing countries, so much so that the developed nations are morally obligated to support the developing countries to offset the roadblocks created by these same developed countries with tariffs, quotas and other trade barriers.
...liberalisations have had adverse consequences for some – including the poorest people – but should we automatically condemn trade initiatives because it means that one person loses or is pushed into poverty? The identification of hardship arising from a generally desirable policy reform should stimulate the search for complementary policies to minimise the adverse consequences and reduce the hurt that they unintentionally cause (Winters, 2002). ‘No country has successfully developed its economy by turning its back on international trade and long-term foreign investment’; although trade alone may not offer a solution for poverty reduction, the OECD and DFID have recently published reports identifying that combining aid and trade initiatives and encouraging the integration of trade and aid could progressively and sustainably alleviate poverty (OEDC, 2009; DFID, 2005).
Poor countries have been receiving aid from the international community for over a century now. While such aid is supposed to be considered an act of kindness from the donor nations or international bodies, it has led to over dependence among the developing countries. They have adopted the habit of estimating and including international aid in their national budgets to reduce their balance of trade deficits. It is believed that foreign aid is necessary for poor nations in order to break the cycle of poverty that ties their citizens in low productivity zones and so their economy will not be weak. However, some critics view the extension of aid to poor countries as means of keeping the nations in economic slumber so that they can wake up from only by devising ways of furthering self-sustainability. Because of these two schools of thought concerning the topic, debate has arisen on which side is more rational and factual than the other. The non-sustainable nature of international aid, however, leaves the question of what may happen in the event that foreign aid is unavailable for the poor nations. After thorough consideration on the effects of the assistance to poor countries, it is sufficient to state that giving international aid to the poor nations is more disadvantageous than beneficial to the nations. This point is argued through an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of giving international aid to the poor countries with appropriate examples drawn from various regions of the world to prove the stance.
Bangladesh has been working to improve its country because it is one of the poorest ones in the world (Islam, 1992). It is one the world’s most densely populated countries with 161 million people. Forty-three percent of the people there still live there and it till has one of the highest prevalence of child malnutrition in the world at 41% (Bangladesh, n.d.)). Foreign aid has been given to the country to try and help get them out of poverty. From the period of 1971 to 2012, Bangladesh received about $56.5 billion in foreign aid (Hossain, 2014). The annual flow ranges from $1.0 billion to $1.5 billion (Quibria, 2010). The United States contributes about 6.29% of the foreign assistance to Bangladesh as bilateral donors (Hossain, 2014).
In recent discussion about helping the poor, one controversial issue has been whether to help or not to help. On one hand, some say that helping the poor is very simple and doesn’t take much. From this point of view, it is seen as selfish to not help the poor. On the other hand, however, others argue that by helping others you are in fact hurting yourself at the same time. In the words of Garrett Hardin, one of this view’s main proponents, “prosperity will only be satisfied by lifeboat ethics.” According to this view, we are not morally obligated to help other countries. In sum, then, the issue is whether to help poorer countries or not.