Foreign Aid in American Foreign Policy
Foreign Aid in American Foreign Policy
In the times we live in, there are still enormous differences between rich and poor, developed and less developed countries. But why and who is to blame? What can one do about it? Many things have been tried to solve these problems, but have they worked? It is very weird, that we modern, intelligent people, have not yet achieved to get rid of the differences between developed countries and less developed countries.
Developed countries try, every year, they grant a certain percent of their Gross National Product to foreign aid to help the less developed countries to get a better standard of living (better agriculture, more and better schools and hospitals, access to health care, medicines, etc.). On the other hand, are the developed countries "standard of living" the best for less developed countries, and the one that the developed countries should impose on them? For instance, what is the point of giving high tech machinery like tractors and farming equipment, which need expensive fuel and maintenance, and education to people who have none of the above and have harvested their crops by manpower for hundreds of years? We know for a fact that the money we grant is not being used effectively. The governments of the less developed countries take a lot of the money, and a great amount of the sum are not being used to the purposes they are meant for. Bribery and corruption are huge problems in developing countries.
It makes more sense for the developed countries to dig wells for people who walk for miles every day to get their daily water supply, than to support government officials who buy BMWs and own great property.
The World Bank was established, and a large amount of money was poured in, despite the fact that the Third World lacked the level of infrastructure, economic and social background, and the skilled personnel that Europe and North America did have.
The failure of this model of economic development to create economic well being and growth for most Third World countries is due to a few factors. These factors include the amount of economic resources in the hands of the rich and of deceiving governments, the elimination of the large majority of populations, which are affected from economic decision making, and the...