Americans don't give as much as thought (depending on criteria)

TechCentralStation.com ^ | May 6, 2003 | Daniel W. Drezner, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago

[Core_Conservative]

Great Responsibility By Daniel W. Drezner 05/06/2003 E-Mail Bookmark Print Save

TCS

Americans like to think of themselves as generous to the less fortunate. It's therefore disheartening to read in the Financial Times that, "Japan and the US are the least helpful of the rich countries towards the developing world, according to a new measure from a leading think tank."

The "leading think tank" is the Center for Global Development (CGD), a recent offshoot of the prestigious and nonpartisan Institute for International Economics (IIE) Anyone familiar with IIE's work over the past two decades knows that they excel at producing sober international policy analysis. Any report they publish needs to be taken seriously.

The CGD project - Ranking the Rich, conducted jointly with Foreign Policy magazine - creates an index that measures 21 developed countries on a plethora of policies that help or harm poor nations. The Foreign Policy essay provides a readable summary. For a technical description, the CGD provides a primary technical paper and background memos for each of six categories - aid, trade, migration, investment, peacekeeping, and the environment.

[Porterville]

I spent a year in the Peace Corps and almost got killed, while the Euro-weanies in the VOA stuck together in the capital city. I don't know but a year of my life seems pretty significant donation to the betterment of third-worlders...

[Core_Conservative]

I agree - thanks for your service!

[Billthedrill]

The United States will always seem to give less than it really does as long as these measures do not include private charities. In none of the memos cited in the source article would the three medical workers murdered in Saudi Arabia shortly before the Iraq intervention appear, or, for that matter, the hospital in which they worked. And the article points out that ...the authors should also acknowledge that, consciously or unconsciously, they stacked the deck against the United States. For areas such as immigration, peacekeeping, and security matters there appears to be no reliable data.

But it's a pretty fair rating of a somewhat misleading report - kudos to the author.

[Wonder Warthog]

The article is horse manure. If you look at total foreign aid distributed since WWII, the USA literally towers above everyone else, and in fact it is only because of the flow of that aid that the so-called "most generous countries" are able to contribute today.

Add to it that the "Center for Global Development" propaganda piece only talks about "government" policies. Huge amounts of American aid pass through private and/or religious groups.

[Malsua]

However, as a fraction of gross domestic product, American expenditures on foreign direct investment or U.N. peacekeepers are piddling.

And there's the rub.

However, what this anti-American piece of garbage failed to mention is that in REAL DOLLARS, The United States of America is far and away the most giving country on the planet.

-Mal

[Blackyce]

...and Japan is number 2, this is just designed to make the Eurotrash feel better about themselves.

[Core_Conservative]

Doesn't look like you have a problem commenting on stupid articles. You might want to try to use your brain once and a while, and come up with some valid reasons why this is a stupid article. (I know that this article is full of holes, I just wanted to bring it to the light of FR readers and give them a chance to flame the writer)