THE OPPENHEIMER REPORT - On scale of stingy nations, U.S. may not be the worst

The Miami Herald ^ | May. 25, 2003 | Andres Oppenheimer

[Luis Gonzalez]

Is the United States the least generous among the world's richest nations? Or are U.S. critics manipulating the figures to make Uncle Sam look like the world champion of stinginess?

A new index published by Foreign Policy magazine measuring the 21 richest nations' commitment to fighting world poverty is not good news to the Bush administration. The United States ranks near the bottom of the list.

The index, created by the magazine and the Center for Global Development (CGD), a middle-of-the-road Washington think tank, describes itself as the first of its kind that takes into account six factors: foreign aid, trade, migration, investment, peacekeeping efforts and environmental behavior.

According to the ranking, the country that does the most to help the world's poor is the Netherlands, followed by Denmark, Portugal, New Zealand, Switzerland, Germany and Spain.

The least generous in relation to the size of their economies are Japan, the United States, Australia and Canada.

PREVIOUS REPORT

The new index comes a year after the U.N. Human Development Report ranked the United States last among the world's 28 top foreign aid donor countries. According to that report, the United States spends only 0.1 percent of its gross national product on foreign aid, compared with Denmark's 1.06 percent of its GNP.

Other indexes show the United States is by far the world's biggest oil consumer and the largest polluter in terms of throwing dangerous gases into the atmosphere.

But U.S. officials charge these indexes are grossly biased. If you measure things differently, the United States comes out as a model of altruism, they say.

In dollar terms, the United States' $9.9 billion a year in foreign assistance ranks only second after Japan's $13.5 billion and is far ahead of European countries. And if one adds the estimated $9 billion in U.S. charitable aid -- money given by churches, corporations and private citizens -- the United States is by far the largest aid donor in the world, they say.

TRADE OPENNESS

If you look at trade openness, the United States is far more open to developing countries' exports than Europe or Japan. For instance, U.S. farm subsidies, which developing countries say badly hurt their own ability to export their own agricultural goods, are far lower than Europe's or Japan's.

The annual U.S. subsidy to cattle producers is $151 per cow, compared with $435 in Europe and $1,296 in Japan, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

''The authors of these indexes have a bias and select their statistics to fit their bias,'' a State Department official told me. ``If we developed an index giving greater weight to other factors, we could come up with an index that showed that the United States is the greatest contributor to international development.''

So who's right? As is often the case, it depends on where you stand.

If you are looking at it from the standpoint of African countries, the biggest recipients of rich nations' foreign aid, the Foreign Policy/CGD index is pretty accurate.

PITIFUL COMPARISON

The U.S. foreign aid figures are, indeed, pitiful when compared with those of other developed nations. U.S. foreign aid has been cut in half in recent years, and the Bush administration's recent vow to increase it by $5 billion over the next three years will not do much to change the overall picture.

But if you are in Latin America, the six-factor index can lead to misleading conclusions, the index's own creators admit. Most countries in the region, for instance, are middle-income nations that do not qualify for rich nations' foreign aid programs.

''If we did a specific index taking into account the issues that the Latin Americans are most concerned about, such as trade, investment and migration, the United States would rank much higher,'' Foreign Policy publisher Moises Naim told me. ``U.S. policies are much better for Latin America's development than those of Europe or Japan.''

I agree. It would be great if these indexes were divided into separate rankings tailored for various regions. The United States would rank much higher in many of them, although probably not nearly as high as U.S. officials claim or most Americans suspect.

• POSTSCRIPT: On another issue, pay attention to Venezuela. Regardless of the outcome of a planned referendum on Venezuela's political future, well-placed U.S. officials suspect populist President Hugo Chávez will try to provoke a new coup against him to make a sweeping purge of the armed forces and complete Venezuela's transition to an authoritarian regime.

If that happens, there will be a toughening of the Bush administration's policy toward Venezuela, the sources say. U.S. sanctions against Venezuela are unlikely, but U.S. officials could release information that would be embarrassing for Chávez, such as reports about the alleged presence of nearly 1,000 Cuban officers in Venezuela. Stay tuned.

[Luis Gonzalez]

THE OPPENHEIMER REPORT will be posted weekly.

[Luis Gonzalez]

• POSTSCRIPT: On another issue, pay attention to Venezuela. Regardless of the outcome of a planned referendum on Venezuela's political future, well-placed U.S. officials suspect populist President Hugo Chávez will try to provoke a new coup against him to make a sweeping purge of the armed forces and complete Venezuela's transition to an authoritarian regime.

[Lockbox]

The least generous in relation to the size of their economies are Japan, the United States, Australia and Canada.

Is that before or after the cost America bears to protect the rest of the World is calculated?

[Alamo-Girl]

Sigh... Thanks for the heads up!

[staytrue]

A lot of foreign "aid" is conditional on purchasing products. For example, we often give money for them to purchase US made military hardware or US grain. Israel comes to mind here. We give them money and they buy US planes.

The other countries do the same. If you look at only unconditional aid, I have no idea how things line up. I suspect the French are particularly good at foreign aid. It ususally goes something like this. You give french contruction company a contract for far over market value, the french give you money for whores, drugs, etc, and the contracting company gives the french govt. bribes for arranging the deal. The only loser is the french people and your people but the govt. leaders come out way ahead.

[Luis Gonzalez]

No kidding...can you recall how many casualties the Netherlands suffered in the process of liberating Iraq?

[Luis Gonzalez]

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

[Rodney King]

This is ridiculous. That we consume the most oil is not a negative, it is the by-product of us being the most productive nation in the world. Plus, I doubt that they counted teh Iraq war as peace-keeping.

Besides, I am against all foregin aid anyways (except for military aid to allies, for whom we woudl otherwise have to send our own troops). Foregin Aid is nothing but welfare, and I beelive that in the long run it hurts more than helps those it is provided to.

[Luis Gonzalez]

"The least generous in relation to the size of their economies are Japan, the United States, Australia and Canada."

That would also mean that if Fidel Castro throws a few bucks at some beggar in Rio, Cuba would rank among the most generous.

[Luis Gonzalez]

The point that Andres is trying to make is how skewed these "findings" are.

[Cicero]

Regretably a huge percentage of the foreign aid being offered to the third world these days consists of family planning: condoms, stealth tubal litigations, forced abortions, contraceptive pills and technologies we consider unsafe for use in our own country.

Moreover, other forms of aid are usually conditional on changing the laws in poor countries so as to legalize abortion. If you don't legalize abortion, you don't get any aid or loans.

So, another way of putting it is that probably the Netherlands is first per capita at killing third-world babies and decimating the population of Africa.

[Luis Gonzalez]

"So, another way of putting it is that probably the Netherlands is first per capita at killing third-world babies and decimating the population of Africa."

Good point.

[Mister Baredog]

So who's right? As is often the case, it depends on where you stand.

So the rest of the world now wants to tell the US taxpayers where to send their money, unreal, they have got some nerve. LOL

They think they can shame the US into handing out more and more money to the "poor" countries, I guess it's so we can all be a little "poorer", that seems to be the goal: Bring down the USA, good luck, we're not buying.

[D. Brian Carter]

First of all, someone has to be first, and someone has to be last.

Secondly, since our GDP is much higher than so many other countries', it doesn't take as much of a percentage for us to make more of an impact. Just because Denmark spends 1.06 percent of their GDP doesn't automatically require everyone else to. Sorry, too bad your GDP is a fraction of ours, and that we are able to provide more assistance to the world at a lower percentage...

Finally, who cares? Since when are we ENTITLED to give ANYONE ANYTHING? I already think we give too much, in light of the fact that nobody appreciates it anyway, that all these countries that get millions or billions in aid from us hate us, despise us, wish for our demise. So I don't care if the number is zero... it's our money, we'll do what we want to with it...

[Alamo-Girl]

Indeed! I have been corresponding with a great niece who is living in the Netherlands. The way she describes it, it is a paradise to the extreme liberal.

According to her, it's very "quaint" in having no "super markets," transportation by bicycle, political correctness, and extreme environmental guilt trips - but where it gets weird in my view is the school curriculum. This girl just turned thirteen but her class project was to envision a world including religion, morals, laws, etc.

Maybe it's just me but that seems like a heavy burden for such a young person and leaves the door wide open for life-long commitment to moral relativism.

[OpusatFR]

Amen!

Also does this figure take into account the massive amount of ~private~ donations and charitable aid given overseas by just ordinary citizens in the USA?

[hchutch]

If there is a second coup, we need to hope this one succeeds.

We may even have to help it along by taking Chavez out.

[Congressman Billybob]

This "Report" takes into account "six factors." Five of those factors have nothing to do with gross dollars of foreign aid. It's fairly obvious that those who prepared this "Report" sat around a table and said to themselves, "How can we fudge the results to make the US look lame in its foreign aid efforts?"

They can up with this method of making the US, which is far and away to greatest in aid to foreign nations directly and through the US, SEEM to be a piker in this regard. In the words of Bugs Bunny, "What a pack of maroons?"

Congressman Billybob

Latest column, now up FR, "The Knight of Draper's Liquor Store."

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

'Ten Cannots'

	You cannot bring about prosperity discouraging thrift.
	You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
	You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
	You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
	You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
	You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
	You cannot further brotherhood of men by inciting class hatred.
	You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
	You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative.
	You cannot really help men by having the government tax them to do for them what they can and should do for themselves. ~ Abraham Lincoln From: A World Free of Wealth

Actually, if they want to help the poor, Bank officials should focus less on "inclusion" and more on freedom—because that’s the real antidote to poverty. This is confirmed by the "Index of Economic Freedom," published annually by The Wall Street Journal and The Heritage Foundation. This guidebook ranks nations by how economically free they are. It consistently shows that people who live in countries with the fewest economic restraints are wealthier than those in economically repressed countries.

Take Haiti and the Dominican Republic, two developing countries with a common border. The 2001 Index shows that of the 155 countries graded, Haiti ranks 137^th, while the Dominican Republic is 59^th. So what? Well, the answer to that question is this: Thanks to a more market-oriented economy that features low tax rates, Dominicans earn nearly five times as much as Haitians: an average of $1,799, compared to Haiti’s $370.

Examples like these abound. So why the Bank’s misdiagnosis? Partly because of what it sees in the former Soviet Union. We’ve poured billions into many of these countries, and they’re worse off today than under Soviet rule, Bank officials say. So capitalism obviously doesn’t work.

But as the United States and other democracies have shown, capitalism isn't just the absence of socialist-style economics.

The reason should be clear: All the loans in the world are no substitute for economic reform—for freedom. Countries that want to be rich don’t need charity; they need to unshackle their people’s economic potential. Perhaps then the Bank can adopt a new slogan: "Our Dream is a World That’s Really Rich."

[mark502inf]

Several problems with the above report:
1-It measures aid as Official development Assistance (ODA). It does not include the extensive aid the USA gives outside the ODA categorizations; especially thru DOD channels; e.g. road-building projects in the Balkans executed by the military, hospital wings constructed and equipped in Afghanistan, etc, etc. etc.
2-It grossly understates the money voluntarily sent overseas by private individuals and organizations. See below:
International giving by U.S. foundations totals $1.5 billion per year
Charitable giving by U.S. businesses now comes to at least $2.8 billion annually
American NGOs gave over $6.6 billion in grants, goods and volunteers.
Religious overseas ministries contribute $3.4 billion, including health care, literacy training, relief and development.
$1.3 billion by U.S. colleges are given in scholarships to foreign students
Personal remittances from the U.S. to developing countries came to $18 billion in 2000
Source: Dr. Carol Aderman, Aid and Comfort, Tech Central Station, 21 August 2002.

[bart99]

"According to the ranking, the country that does the most to help the world's poor is the Netherlands, followed by Denmark, Portugal, New Zealand, Switzerland, Germany and Spain.

The least generous in relation to the size of their economies are Japan, the United States, Australia and Canada.

---

Unbeleivable that this report was even produced. They HAVE to be joking. I hope the world's countrieds in need continue to go to Denmark, Portugal, New Zealand, Switzerland, Germany and Spain for their soupport. Geez. How misleading can statistics be!!!???

[skinkinthegrass]

Regardless of the outcome of a planned referendum on Venezuela's political future, well-placed U.S. officials suspect populist President Hugo Chávez will try to provoke a new coup against him to make a sweeping purge of the armed forces and complete Venezuela's transition to an authoritarian regime.

Didn't Hitler do the same thing when that 'RAT assumed power in 1934...blame fellow citizens of some misdeed, use them as scapegoats?

[bart99]

" I already think we give too much, in light of the fact that nobody appreciates it anyway, that all these countries that get millions or billions in aid from us hate us, despise us, wish for our demise"

---

Agree. This is the best point made here. No matter what we do or don't do won't change any country's relationship with us.... much less their population's. We are not in a win-win situation here, so we might as well provide $$$ ONLY to our proven friends and allies. Saudi Arabia can support the others. *snicker*

[george wythe]

I suspect the French are particularly good at foreign aid. It ususally goes something like this. You give french contruction company a contract for far over market value, the french give you money for whores, drugs, etc, and the contracting company gives the french govt. bribes for arranging the deal. The only loser is the french people and your people but the govt. leaders come out way ahead.

Thank you for explaining it in plain English.

[skinkinthegrass]

Another Liberal Org. looking for Federal Tax $$$ hand-out...

[bart99]

"Also does this figure take into account the massive amount of ~private~ donations and charitable aid given overseas by just ordinary citizens in the USA?" -------------------------- If they counted private donations, then the 'religion of Islam' would no doubt become number one. Or are terrorists not considered poor?

[SAJ]

RIght you are. Actually, I don't think Chavez will even allow the referendum to proceed.

We'll see, shortly.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

THE OPPENHEIMER REPORT - On scale of stingy nations, U.S. may not be the worst***o POSTSCRIPT: On another issue, pay attention to Venezuela. Regardless of the outcome of a planned referendum on Venezuela's political future, well-placed U.S. officials suspect populist President Hugo Chávez will try to provoke a new coup against him to make a sweeping purge of the armed forces and complete Venezuela's transition to an authoritarian regime.

If that happens, there will be a toughening of the Bush administration's policy toward Venezuela, the sources say. U.S. sanctions against Venezuela are unlikely, but U.S. officials could release information that would be embarrassing for Chávez, such as reports about the alleged presence of nearly 1,000 Cuban officers in Venezuela. Stay tuned.***

Bump!

Hugo Chavez - Venezuela

[marron]

Regretably a huge percentage of the foreign aid being offered to the third world these days consists of family planning: condoms, stealth tubal litigations, forced abortions, contraceptive pills and technologies we consider unsafe for use in our own country.

What I observed is that European NGO's are hard at work organizing indigenous organizations to oppose economic development. The tribes are very political, their leadership has the dubious advantage of Euro advisors who council them on how best to obstruct economic investment. They do this by organizing mass demonstrations, coups, national strikes. The people themselves have no clue what they are doing to themselves, they trust their leaders and their leaders are leftists who are advised by Euro leftists.

The Euros are also very active in Latin American countries on the environmental front, with the same end, trying to shut down economic investment.

Then you have the Euro NGO's working with the coca farmers, giving them aid and direction and organizing uprisings against the central government. Whatever your opinion ahout the drug war, you will find that among those organizing the uprisings among the farmers are Euro social workers who are paid by Euro NGO's.

So when you are comparing US aid versus Euro aid, it is important to qualify exactly what that aid is and what it does.

[Susannah]

Didn't Hitler do the same thing when that 'RAT assumed power in 1934...blame fellow citizens of some misdeed, use them as scapegoats?

Not sure, but very likely. After all, the unofficial leader of the American Nazi Party was Henry Ford...and during the depression era, he blamed the laziness of the american workers.

[Susannah]

Does anyone know who OWNS "Foreign Policy magazine?"

I did a google search and found>>>editor/publisher Moises Naim at the magazine, 1779 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036, (202) 939-2230.

Publisher is in DC; however, I only knew this year about France holding certain U.S. magazines.

[RightOnline]

Anyone who can't see that the U.S. is by FAR the most generous nation on the face of the earth...........even with the lives of its young people sent to liberate the oppressed in various odd stinkholes around the world.........is absolutely delusional.

[weegee]

Don't forget aid for natural disasters.

[Always Right]

....its kind that takes into account six factors: foreign aid, trade, migration, investment, peacekeeping efforts and environmental behavior.

What does 'environmental behavior' have to do with fighting poverty???? This is just a leftist hit piece which elevates the phoney issue of global warming. The stupid thing is, the US may produce a lot of CO2, but we also sink more CO2 through our trees and plants than we produce. So the US gets hit real hard in this area where it should be a positive. What a bogus study.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

CORRECTION:

Abraham Lincoln did NOT write the "Ten Cannots":

http://www.conservativeforum.org/authquot.asp?ID=610

 

William Boetcker
1873 - 1962

German-born Presbyterian clergyman, author of "Ten Cannots" which were published in half of a 1916 leaflet entitled "Lincoln on private property". The other half of the leaflet offered words of wisdom by Abraham Lincoln. The leaflet has been republished several times since and is often quoted.

Thank you Susannah for asking.

[Luis Gonzalez]

"This is just a leftist hit piece which elevates the phoney issue of global warming."

Actually, Andres just reports the "findings" and then counters that they are skewed.

[Carolina]

I would like to know what percentage of these aid programs are actually successful. For many, it's the spending of the money, not the results that matter most of all.

Many of my family members are involved in the "international aid" business and from their experience, there is MUCH graft and corruption from the highest level on down that there isn't much left for the actual implementation of the projects. IOW, much of the project dollars or euros are spent on building buildings, buying cars, setting up infrastructure, etc., that the field people have to string along on shoestring budgets.

[Always Right]

I was referring to the study, but I should have been clearer. The reporting had some balance, it was the study that is hopelessly skewed.

[aruanan]

I'd rather have 1% of a thousandeth of a stingy billionaire's net worth than the entirety of the net worth of an altruistic pauper.

[Billthedrill]

the first of its kind that takes into account six factors: foreign aid, trade, migration, investment, peacekeeping efforts and environmental behavior...

And if one adds the estimated $9 billion in U.S. charitable aid -- money given by churches, corporations and private citizens -- the United States is by far the largest aid donor in the world, they say...

I should certainly like that seventh factor to be included inasmuch as it may amount to as much as 9 billion. That is an awful lot of "invisible" aid.

I did notice one little nugget of extremely interesting information in the report - the part about most Latin American countries being middle-range economies and hence not qualifying for foreign aid...there was a time not too long ago when these were claimed to be hotbeds of runaway overpopulation, poverty, and incipient communism. I wonder what happened, other than democracy, healthy capitalism and the end of the Cold War?