some of *us* are rotters; some of *us* are saints–

but I do fear there are brothers and sisters there I would find very congenial who have worked very hard so I can have a few cheap things–

I can smell the ethnocentrism a mile off–

I wonder how *you* would feel if the positions were reversed.

Clumpy, in my opinion, you said it very well. I, too, struggle with the entire “third world country” thing–

I hope I won’t feel too ashamed when I meet my brothers and sisters from there, some day.

Because they are my brothers and sisters, and I will meet them–

but how will *I* feel?

Also, this article I love to quote by Arthur Brooks who, at one point in this speech, said that the day we let government take over our giving and our charity is the day we all become poorer and less happy, etc.

My measure of fairness is quite simple, has someone taken your life or degrees thereof, your liberty or degrees thereof, or your property or degrees thereof? If not then *that* is fair, regardless of whatever differing results and levels of prosperity ensue.

One of the things her guest mentions is an interesting psychological-economic reason why entrepreneurship and micro-credit works where Aid doesn’t.

If you give someone a free gift, it’s unlikely they’ll tell you what’s wrong with it. They’ll probably pretend to be pleased and put on an act to demonstrate their “gratitude.” On the other hand, if you try to sell them something, suddenly they become a tough customer, they’ll tell you exactly what they want and exactly what’s wrong with what you’re selling.

One of the key goals for any developing nation should be food sovereignty – having the ability to produce and bring to market as much of the food its people consume as possible. Placing locally grown food stuffs in competition with US corporate food distributors breaks down those internal markets and makes it more likely that the country will need aid in the future should calamity strike.

I like the thoughts of Dudley Hafner, former CEO of the American Heart Association, on this topic:

“The other thing I think that is unique about these United States is the fact that charitable giving is as much a force in the freedom of democracy as the right of assemblage or the right of vote or the right of free press. It’s another way of expressing ourselves very, very forcefully.” (Full quote at http://richardkmiller.com/298 .)

When government redistributes our wealth, we’re denied the ability to choose which causes to support. When citizens give, non-profits have to compete for their attention and money, a sort of free-market competition within the non-profit world.

Also, if government’s stated goal is to aid 3rd-world countries, it’s ironic that we erect trade barriers. We have historically subsidized wheat and taxed sugar, depriving sugar-exporting countries of our markets, a financial opportunity that would be far more enriching and sustainable than handouts. (And the merits of sugar over high fructose corn syrup could be an entire other debate.)

The end result is that, like a working mother making $8 an hour to take care of her children who can’t afford to miss a day or jeopardize her job by looking for another, entire countries essentially stay in limbo, scraping off what amounts to a subsistence living so that our calculators and clothes and PlayStations can stay as comparatively cheap as they are. Capitalism doesn’t work on a global scale when people stay desperate but their basic needs are juuuust being met.

One of my greatest frustrations is being complicit in this system, which relies on most of us (including myself) neither thinking about it too much nor caring enough to buy more expensive locally-produced goods. What’s the aggregate drain on developing countries as we leech them for labor? Probably more than 37 + 21 billion. We mean well I’m sure, but with a $14.2 trillion GDP it’s more than apparent that we’re cleaning up in the long run.

Ultimately long-term aid fails because it does not address the causes of poverty and hunger. Either it maintains a culture of dependency or it enriches despots or both. We now have nations where 2 or more generations have known only handouts and corruption.

The first objective for a destitute nation is to do as much as possible to feed its own people. That means developing an agricultural base that is not dependent on foreign seeds or fertilizers and developing internal markets that can deliver that produce where it is needed. The second objective is security. Small impoverished nations need to be free from attack by their neighbors and from internal actors without using their meager resources to fund armies. That means a sharp and well-enforced reduction in the arms trade, particularly small arms, and a permanent international force that can insure the integrity of international borders in the developing world. Thirdly we need to have an international mechanism that can work to improve human rights. The United States cannot be the international actor that performs these duties because it is not and cannot be a impartial neutral party, even if we had the money to take on this role, which we don’t.