Re: OT: The silence is deafening

kbarkema01@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
> Why can't we 'count' private donations from American citizens?

You can, and we do. But even taking that into account, the U.S. still
comes far back in the pack for aid given as a percentage of GDP.

If Americans don't want to give generously, that's their right. But
when some Americans then mistakenly suggest that the U.S. is a big aid
donor despite the facts to the contrary, that needs to be corrected.


> I bet
> the money spends the same? Is it because it blows your arguement out
> of the water? If you look at my link in 2000 the United States
> government gave 9.9 billion in foreign aid. In addition to that
> private donations to foreign aid by U.S. citizens was around 45 billion
> dollars. I guess you can push 45 billion dollars under the rug.

No, it's a lot of money. But as a percentage of national income, it's
small.

Look at this page:
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/eco_eco_aid_don_cap

This deals *only* with "ODA" - official direct aid, i.e. from the
national governments. Note that Luxembourg, Norway and Denmark all
contribute over $300 per person per year in ODA, while the U.S.
contributes a little over $23 per person per year. Now, I think you
and I and your dog all know that U.S. citizens are *not* contributing
another $275 per person in private and non-governmental organization
(NGO) aid. But this page I've cited doesn't even show what the
Luxembourgeois and Norwegians and Danes are giving privately.

Official Development Assistance:
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Image:OECDstatistics.jpg

This page, http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Foreign-aid,
indicates that U.S. government aid is about $15-$16 billion per year,
or 0.15% of GDP, and has a note that private donations are another $35
billion per year, which would be about 0.35% of GDP. Thus, American
government and private donations together amount to about 0.50% of GDP.
But for Norway, government ODA *alone* is 0.92 of GDP; and Norwegians
(and Luxembourgeois and Danes) *also* make private donations.

U.S. economic aid (developmental and humanitarian) is a lot of money in
absolute terms, and I'm certain recipients are grateful for it. But
there simply is no reasonable way to classify the U.S. as "generous" in
a comparison with other countries' aid efforts.

.

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