Righteousness comes cheap
amen to that!
By Jonathan Tobin
"...root cause: the debts incurred by Third World governments, and the perceived failure of prosperous nations like the United States to give enough in aid to the debtor nations."No, the root cause is creating debtor nations by giving US aid to the dictators and used to enhance the elite of these
countries and leave the people in worse poverty than they were in before US aid."... Self-righteousness comes pretty cheap these days, and you'd have to be an incorrigible curmudgeon to say anything bad about it, wouldn't you?"
No - but blind as a bat would do.
"But there's a real problem with this mass-produced activism: It isn't likely to help the Third World poor."
But more likely to help than how the US government doles out aid - directly to dictators.
"...Americans, have already donated untold billions for this very purposee result hasn't been what they intended."
Not the fault of the American people but of their corrupt leaders.
"What aid to Third World nations has instead done is reinforce the power of the small, undemocratic and corrupt elites in those countries, and enrich them while consigning virtually everybody else to despair."
Exactly. And exactly why private citizens wish to bypass US aid.
"Foreign experts and nongovernmental organizations will come in to these countries as they have before and tell the locals what
to do."I take it Mr. Tobin has not read on any of the housing projects or the clean water projects by nongovernmntal
organizations?"What stymies the people in poor countries, as a rule, is not a lack of aid. It is forms of government, often corrupt and tyrannical, that do not allow people to exercise free choice under fair law."
The bloody list is very long of US backed dictators - check them out - if thy have oil, diamonds, rubber - you can bet
your teeth the US has been there taken that..."What they believe in is the guilt of developed countries for the ills of the poor, whose failings can be variously ascribed to capitalism, colonialism, insufficient foreign aid and military spending — anything, that is, but the absence of the rule of law or free economies."
And the poor of these countries know the foreign policy of the US has caused their sufferings
"What they plan to do is to pour money down the same corrupt sinkholes as before. But there has been no explanation as to why they think the outcome will be any different."
Explanation: the money they raise will not go to the tyrants.
"If we live in prosperity today, it's because of the vision of Hamilton, whom biographer Ron Chernow aptly described as "the prophet of the capitalist revolution in America," and not that of the agrarian Jefferson."
And our prosperity is at the expense of oil rich countries et al.
"Though America faced few of the challenges associated with the Third World today, the linkage between the rule of law, free markets and free economies remains the same."
Pillage and rape of resources not withstanding.
"But this Fourth of July, rather than excoriating America, the poor of the world and their sympathizers should look to it for an example of how freedom and prosperity are ultimately indivisible."
At what price freedom?
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