Giving Til’ It Doesn’t Hurt

By: Vince Yanez

In Mort Rosenblum’s Escaping Plato’s Cave, he writes about a study where they ask Americans how much they think we contribute both in emergency relief and long-term aid to help other countries reduce poverty, develop, fight AIDS, etc. Americans guess we contribute anywhere from 10 to 15% of our GDP.  

America loves to believe we are a very giving country, and in many ways we are, with a total assistance of just under 25 Billion dollars. But to say we are one of the most giving is very off the mark.

Factually

In 2006, we gave 0.17 of our GDP, pretty much HALF the total of most other countries. The only country that gave less than us was Greece, at 0.01 percent.

In that same year, Sweden gave the most at 1.03 percent. Norway, Denmark and Luxembourg were a close second. Behind them was Ireland, at 0.53, barely beating out Britain, Belgium, Austria and France.

From 2010 and beyond, the amounts of aid is expected to rise significantly across the board, as the world is slowly becoming nations of haves and have not, much like our own country, where the rich are becoming richer and the middle class are moving into poverty. European countries agreed to raise their aid levels from an average of 0.44 percent to 0.59 percent, a 51% increase in (real term) aid. Greece has agreed to raise their contributions by 239%.

The United States only has committed to raising theirs from 0.17 percent to 0.18 percent, to become the lowest contributor of aid in the world. The richest country in the world will be giving the least amount of money. Remember, this is the same country where the top 1% controls 95% of the wealth within that country, a mere coincidence?

Actually

Now, I know people like to shout “0.17 percent is HUGE when you take into account our GDP compared to other countries”, sure, but if you think about that actual fact, it makes what we are doing even more pathetic. Let’s simplify.

Let’s say you live in a neighborhood of countries. The Swedish guy across the street lives in a modest home has a decent car and makes $1000 a month. He is donation $10 a month to help the less fortunate. The Irish guy, next door, has a modest home, a decent car and is making about $800 dollars a month; he’s giving around $4.50 a month to the less fortunate. Now here’s the American, in his McMansion and a Hummer in the driveway. He’s making around $10,000 a month, and his contribution to aid the rest of the world is around $17 dollars a month, and in a few years, he may raise it to $18 if he’s feeling kind.

The simple fact is that the man who has ten dollars and gives a dollar is making a much bigger sacrifice than the man who has one hundred dollars and gives three dollars. And that is exactly the sort of thing that is happening on a much larger scale.

And I won’t even go into the fact that a majority of our aid is used to buy UN votes, help developing nations that we hope to make as trading partners and a large chunk of our ‘aid’ goes to paying U.S. shipping companies, U.S. contractors overseas and U.S. ‘experts’ out there in the world.

We have amazing moments of ‘immediate aid’ when the American people are made aware of disasters like the Tsunami or the earthquake in Haiti, so we can be proud to be a nation of people who really do care and want to help…but to assume our government is as caring as we hope they are, is letting us pat ourselves on the back for something that doesn’t really exist to the extent we think it does.

Sadly

Every hundred days, 10 million people die due to lack of clean water, basic health care or a single daily meal. That’s one holocaust every three months. Last year we spent over $660 BILLION on Defense, more than the top 10 countries combined. So your American neighbor, aside from his $17 a month to help others on this planet, is also spending about $5000 a month to keep himself safe from others on this planet.

And the saddest part, is that every Sunday, he will jump into his Hummer and drive through his security gate, in order to go to church and pray for world peace and ‘doing unto others’, as all good people should.

One Last Thing

In the last 50 years, as of 2007, richer countries have given poorer countries around $1.4 Trillion dollars. This amount equals the amount spent in ONE YEAR for arms sales, or it equals what we spent in Iraq in our fourth year of the seven year war. Maybe we need to rethink our priorities.