It's your government, stupid!

[caddmannq]

(The "Africa-Farms" thread started me thinking about this...)

Every day I hear people world-wide moaning about how the American people and the American government's policies will screw them around. Over and over, it's the same old song and dance.

"It's unfair. You're insensative. You're greedy. You don't care about the third world. You're all rich, arrogant, war-mongering, imperalist bastards living high off the sweat of the third-world."

Whatta buncha hogwash; and boy am I sick of it. This country does more for the third world than any other nation. We do more for them than their own governments do for them.

So I say: Look to your own screwed-up governments for the cause of your plight. If you had a decent system, and decent leaders, you wouldn't be in this situation. Most of the nations in this world are run by ruthless, greedy, bandits. That's your real problem. and it's not America's fault!

CaddmannQ

This country does more for the third world than any other nation. We do more for them than their own governments do for them.

Very true, we spend millions sending food and aid workers to help out countries that are in need

[caddmannq]

Billions.

oops billions. we don't have to do what we do but we do it. we have people who volunteer there time and effort to help others. they give up there comfortables lives to come over and help cause they want too.

[Epidemic]

I am American so of course you will discount anything I say but I agree. We make mistakes and sometimes are wrong.

But for the most part are government is perhaps the biggest philanthropists going.

We have spearheaded almost every effort at supplying aid to striken countries.

Vote your governments out with aggressive negotiation if required.

All very true and I agree with this. But, let us not forget what the US gets in return:

1) The privilege of being called a World Leader.
2) Political and economic influence well beyond its borders
3) Economic advantage in terms of arms exports
4) Military/Naval bases around the world

The US is by far the most philanthropic in the world. But for foreign governments, there is no such thing as a free lunch. They pay a price, however obscure or abstract, to the US. One small example:

In India, the US Government has set up centers called USIS- United States Information Services- in every major and even minor cities/towns. Ostensibly, they provide library/research facilities free for all.

But guess what else they do (and I'm not judging if its good or bad)- they influence political thinking, religion, economic policies, lobby for reducing import duties on US goods, and so on. At one time the Indian Government cracked down and closed all these centers because the CIA had infiltrated it and was doing their work from USIS centers. They reopened a few years later on assurances from President Carter that these centers would be free from US Government funding. Today they are paid and supported by the Ford Foundation, Carnegie Mellon Foundation and so on.

See, whenever something is done for someone, there is always a price to pay. In personal life, professional life, in international politics. Always.

This is Real Politiks at work.

[fatal xception]

What cracks me up was during our last conflict, we were bombing and sending care packages at the same time.

What country does that?

[caddmannq]

Shahani: As you have said before, the Indian government is one of the more corrupt governments on earth.

With the huge population base, and a huge land to work in, they should be able to manage things to bring up the Indian standard of living. But they really don't. What they do is skim off every thing they can, and then stir up a bunch of trouble to distract the people from seeing what they are really doing.

I'm not just picking on India. This is the standard MO of crooked politics everywhere, and you can see that politics in the USA is similar. Similar, but less odious by an order of magnitude. Our form of government and society keeps things under control.

That's what makes all the difference.

I agree that corruption is everywhere. In my opinion, corruption in India starts at the grassroots level- the guy who reads your electricity meter, the postman, railway ticket clerks are mostly corrupt. Here, that's not true. In the US, corruption is at higher levels of the government and corporations. Consequently, it does not impact life for Joe Average as it does in India.

The biggest problem, IMO, India has is that the population and its growth rate are so huge that all increases resourses get divided by an ever increasing denominator. It is this failure to control population increase that is responsible for poverty. And in a democratic society, you can't impose the draconian control measures that China did so successfully in the 1980s and 1990s.

Fatal: The food packages and bombs in Afghanistan. I think thats fairly simple. The US was after the terrorists. Not the civilian population which, unfortunately got caught in the crossfire. To some extent, this compensated. True, it had propaganda value as well, just like the Afghani language radio broadcasts the US made. In summary, I'd say the US felt very bad that civilians were getting hurt and tried to help them and is continuing to do so.

My prediction is that Afghanistan will receive huge amounts (remember the Marshall Plan and Japan after WW II) and eventually join the mainstream of civilized society.

[caddmannq]

Thanks, Shahani. Your points are well taken. The average people here are not so corrupt as in many other places. And IMHO, people usually get the government that they deserve.