The Center for Global Development has just released its 2010 Commitment to Development Index: “Rich and poor nations are linked in many ways-by foreign aid, commerce, the environment, and more. Each year, the CDI rates rich-country governments on how much they are helping poor countries via seven key linkages: aid, trade, investment, migration, environment, security, and technology.” The scores are adjusted for size. Sweden is the big giver of the bunch (lots of aid), although the U.S. fares better than expected thanks to its outsized trade and security contributions. South Korea does the least for poor countries, although France, Italy, Greece, Switzerland and Japan all score below average. [%comments]
How Much Do Rich Countries Help Poor Ones?
TAGS: development, poverty
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And how much do poor countries help rich ones?
It is wildly difficult to determine what “help” will actually improve the conditions for those “helped”.
Does one send mega-tonnes of food?
Does one support foreign farmers that compete with your own?
Does one allow the poor country’s brainpower easy emigration?
Does one help prevent their infant mortality in over-populated slums?
Does one supply weapons? Birth control? Mosquito nets? Building codes?
These are not easy questions. Plato would have asked them. My dear wife is preparing food and shelters for feral abandoned cats. My dear grandmother settled the problem with a sack and a washtub.
I find it about equally hard to contemplate either method.`
And how does the US fare when you exclude transfers to Israel, which is not a ‘poor’ country?
This is only useful if you agree with all of the assumptions, weights, etc. I don’t (greenhouse gas emissions, really?).
Also, from what I can tell the financial assessments are only on government contributions and ignores all private contributions . Since private contributions can be quite substantial (Bill Gates helps make us all look better when using averages), this makes a big difference. Personally, I’d prefer to give my money directly to charitable causes rather than having the government forcefully take the money from me, take out a large chunk of that for bureaucratic purposes, and then give it to )worthy causes (or causes they call “worthy”, but are probably more accurately described as “politically intelligent”).
Then on top of all that, consider that the financial contributions are only those of the government, but the impacts such as greenhouse gases are all-inclusive, you can easily see that this is very inaccurate unless your goal is to make certain countries with certain policies look better than other countries with different policies.
Maybe that’s all this is really good for.
And how much do rich countries harm poor countries?
The answers to both questions should be taken into account when comparing who does what for whom.
I thought it was interesting that the far northern European countries were all so well ensconced at or near the top of this chart.
I do imagine that the fact that America’s military umbrella takes up a lot of the security slack all over the world may permit some countries the “luxury” of having more discretionary funds with which to assist other countries.
Lastly, although adjusted for size, I would imagine that in terms of actual dollars/wealth that goes to helping other nations, America is much nearer the top, if not at the top.
I agree, I’m the best and no amount of data or chats can debunk my belief in this absolutely true fact.
Is there anyone in the US who sees that patriotism is half negative anymore? To imagine what we could be and work towards that goal.
At what point do our heads come out of the dirt and say that we should have done better in the past and we could do better in the future.
If you don’t value the measures, that’s fine, put together your own graph. The US can be number 1 in every category. But I won’t be satisfied until we are able to be the best in every category, no matter who measures it.
While I am a big fan of ‘normalizing’ data, I think that this is a case where the normalized data (per person) and the total aid data both need to be shared. Yes, the US is not at the top on a per person statistic, but I am sure we are far above everyone else on a total aid count.