Re: [Gnu-arch-users] [OT] facism gaining ground in US

[Harald Meland]

[Robin Green]

>>, but then you should be spending the equivalent on foreign aid 
>> then. You live in the world too.
>
> Gah.
>
> I'm sorry. You're simply WRONG. Europe spends *more* per capita on
> foreign aid than the US. The US is among the *stingiest* of
> developed country donors.  The left-leaning country Sweden is IIRC
> at the top of the list, per capita.

I've done a little research; mostly by way of googling, so take the
following with appropriate pinches of salt.

As far back as in 1970, the UN General Assembly endorsed a target that
countries should provide 0.7 percent of GNI as "Official Development
Assistance" (ODA).  Unfortunately, I have been unable to locate an
"official" UN page stating what the current goal is, but the number
and diversity of other references to the 0.7 %GNI goal makes me
believe that is still current.

The OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) compiles ODA numbers
based on reporting from the committee's member countries.  It seems
most western countries are DAC members.

The most recent figures I've been able to find are for 2002; follow
the "Final Figures for Net Official Development Assistance in 2002"
link on
http://www.oecd.org/topic/0,2686,en_2649_34485_1_1_1_1_37413,00.html,
and you'll get:

  http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/3/2/22460411.pdf

As can be seen from this file, in 2002 the US lead the list of DAC
member countries in terms of total ODA volume (with 13.29 billion
USD).

However, when ODA is converted to be in terms of GNI percentage -- as
per the UN goal -- the US appears at the bottom of the list (with a
score of 0.13) .

Denmark heads the list in terms of GNI percentage.  Only Denmark,
Norway, Sweden, Netherlands and Luxembourg are at or above the UN goal
of 0.7 percent of GNI.

The average DAC member country is at 0.23 %GNI.  The average for EU
countries is 0.35 %GNI.

The EU contries' total ODA was 29949 US$m -- which was ~125% more than
the US total (13290 US$m).  The total GNI of the EU countries was ~16%
lower (~8557 US$b) than that of the US (~10223 US$b).


As for per-capita data, I found a PDF with 2001 columns at the UNDP
web; at that time, Luxembourg was "in the lead":

  http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2003/indicator/pdf/hdr03_table_15.pdf

statistically-y'rs,
-- 
Harald