Economic Issues - Foreign aid

[Michael Z]

NO. We have a duty to poorer countries.

Besides, foreign aid means less poverty in third world countries, meaning less breeding grounds for terrorism.

[Michael Z]

NO. We have a duty to poorer countries.

Spoken like a true imperialist.  Let's hope that's not the mainstream view.

Why's that imperialistic? I'm suggesting we help out poorer countries and ensure their citizens can enjoy a decent standard of living. I'm not saying we should invade them or enforce our beliefs on them...

But then I'm one of those 'one human race'-people, so if anything's it's more idealistic than imperialistic.

[Michael Z]

NO. We have a duty to poorer countries.

Spoken like a true imperialist.  Let's hope that's not the mainstream view.

Why's that imperialistic? I'm suggesting we help out poorer countries and ensure their citizens can enjoy a decent standard of living. I'm not saying we should invade them or enforce our beliefs on them...

But then I'm one of those 'one human race'-people, so if anything's it's more idealistic than imperialistic.

The bolsheviks and nazis were very idealistic.  But idealism and imperialism are not mutually orthogonal concepts, by any means.  Invasion doesn't have to involve armies, it can involve technology, food, people, ideas, etc.  At least you choose the adjective 'poorer' rather than lesser'  I'll give you credit for being less ethnocentric than opebo.

I'm not entirely sure what you're implying with the first sentence, but I personally find the wealth gap which exists between the West and the third world to be almost perverse. (In that view, I actually find that Marx's model of the superstructure is not defunct, not by a long shot. It's simply the case that it applies no longer to individual countries or societies, but the entire world.) Besides, it cannot be a coincidence that aforementioned wealth gap is wider than ever and we are also witnessing the rise of religious extremism and groups like al-Qaeda. Redressing this imbalance, or at least aiming to redress it, would go a long to way to solve many of the world's problems, at least in my view.

If anything, it's imperialists who want to keep poorer countries poor, since it provides them with a cheap labour force and governments willing to do their bidding at the tune of the almighty dollar (or euro, or pound).

[Michael Z]

Do you also find it perverse that there's a gap between dick sizes of black, white, and asians?

That's a flawed comparison, since there is hardly anything natural about inequality of wealth.

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It's not a question of 'forcing everyone to be equal', or suggesting that third world countries are given the exact same share as industrialised nations, that's simply misreading my statement. It's possible that I'm expressing myself in a clumsy manner, though I was simply stating a viewpoint that justifies the existence of state-sponsered foreign aid; as opposed to abolishing the whole thing and letting people in the third world fend for themselves, when there already are trade tarriffs and so forth in place which contribute to the extreme poverty some of these countries are finding themselves under. Perhaps repealing these tarriffs would help, but, hey, the more the merrier.

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I'm not sure how you can link that to anything I've said since my views are not about enforcing ideals or beliefs. The Inca chose their religion, whereas hardly anyone, be it here or abroad, actively chooses to live in poverty.

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But surely there is also a pragmatic element to noticing the link between third world poverty and the rise of Al-Qaeda?

The reason I described my viewpoint as 'idealistic', was because I realised that there is an impractical element to it, not because I want to enforce it on all and sundry. Let's just say I have a crap grasp of semantics.

[Michael Z]

Ultimately I tend to overreact toward leftist statements, as I too was raised to believe that the GOP was basically a bunch of greedy amoral capitalist pigs.  As an adult, I have found that private charities and private aid, often from Republicans, have done more good than harm.  Now I consider it a personal quest to dispel the notion that Republicans just want to burn your house down, pollute the air and water, force people into grueling labor, and get richer on the backs of poor uneducated fools.

Heck, I'd be lying if I said I didn't hold the odd prejudice against conservatives myself, which tend to quell up from time to time, but I'm young so give me some time. I guess people automatically become more objective about politics as they grow older, and I'm definitely far more moderate than I used to be. At the end of the day both sides of the political divide tend to hold unfair views of each other when both just want to the best for everyone.

[Michael Z]

NO. Remember Marshall's aid.

Very good point.