US Foreign Aid. Is Aid the right word? Not really.

[ConsAreLiars]

This is an old article (1988), but it is a good reminder of how funds labeled as "aid" are distributed. Charitable giving it ain't.

From http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC19/Lappe.htm
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The Common Good
Foreign aid and the national interest
by Frances Moore Lappé, Rachel Schurman, & Kevin Danaher
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...
Our government's view of the world as a battleground between"them" and "us" not only contributes to a military-dominated foreign policy but powerfully shapes the content of the strictly economic portion of U.S. foreign aid. Washington believes that any economic system not like ours, must be like theirs. Economies are either capitalist or communist. Thus, the United States must use its foreign aid program as a lever to reform third-world economies - to make them more open to foreign investment and market-oriented like ours. The buzz-word is privatization - reducing the government's role in the economy. Increasingly, U.S. aid to third-world governments is awarded on the basis of just such "policy reforms."
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Although the "communist" accusation is passe except among the most backward elements, the essential fact is that monopoly capitalism must extend its reach or die. It does this both horizontally into areas of the world where it is being resisted by independent economies, and vertically by corporatizing and turning a profit on social interactions that were previously free and not mediated by money and seizing control of resources previously held in common by the people.


Somebody may have a more recent set of numbers, but the story is the same.

[tx_dem41]

1. Your Subject needs editing. n/t

[ConsAreLiars]

2. (done -- thanks)

spell check caught the first typo, but I'm not much more accurate with the mouse than the keyboard.