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

[Pierce T . Wetter III]

On Jul 13, 2004, at 5:43 PM, Harald Meland wrote:

> [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.
>
>
> 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).

 Yep. I admitted to being wrong, though I did point out that US citizens
consider some portion of our military budget to be spent outside the US 
and
therefore "foreign" aid.

 Of course, non US citizens probably consider that the taxes of empire, 
but
lets not go there or you'll have to hear my rant about the cold war.

 Instead, consider what would happen if the US actually spent the .7% 
recommended
by the UN. That would increase our foreign aid by 7x which would make 
the
hegemony even worse... Though Bush is arguing for a 50% increase, to 
.15% of
GNI, but that would make the total higher.

 Again, everyone should subscribe to Foreign Affairs. Its funny reading 
every
month as the powers that be say "oh shit, WE'RE in charge?" Seriously, 
we in
the US recognize our dominance of the world, but we also don't have the 
slightest
idea what we should or shouldn't be doing with it.

 There are a lot of articles on Google talking about how Foreign aid 
seems to make
things worse instead of better.

 Pierce