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jp400 wrote:More like we spend alot and get very little in return.

Nah, that sounds good, but it's not true. Look past the rhetoric, check out the facts.

dogma wrote:The US civilian aid budget is absolutely minuscule in comparison to any other contiguous component of government spending. Its also, arguably, the most effective program of its type in the world; outstripping all but the Red Cross in terms of efficient delivery. Economic and humanitarian aid programs are probably the most important means of maintaining global stability that we currently have.

US Aid is a mixed bag. It’s a smaller percentage of GDP than many other nations, but it still dwarfs most other nation’s contribution. The majority of US Foreign Aid goes to US companies, which should come as no real surprise if you understand how our politics actually work. Economic and humanitarian aid programs are probably the most important direct contribution we make to maintain friendly relations with certain impoverished parts of the world, but the mainly private sector Global Economic system the US has built and fostered since WW2 is the most important means of maintaining global stability. When North America, South America, Europe, and Asia are all economically intertwined, with constantly updated rules and regulations, we can’t find cause to fight each other. Where the Globalism does not reach, Africa, the Mid-East, North Korea, and parts of Asia and South America, there you find poverty, oppression, and corruption. Where the Global systems rubs up against the impoverished parts of the world, you find conflict, terrorism, and the places the US Military has performed most of its operations since the end of the Cold War. The challenge of the last century was removing or restraining the dictatorships that came out of the collapse of the old Imperial Powers, and reforming them into Global partners. The challenge of this century will not be to contain the 2 Billion hungry people who are standing outside the Global system with their noses pressed to the glass. Instead, bringing them into the Global system, giving them a chance to lift themselves out of poverty and oppression, and incidently creating a huge new market for our good and services is the Great Task we will have to accomplish. And, we will, but it will take another half century. It will go a lot faster with help from our friends.