Issue Analysis #4 - To Aid or Not To Aidtled part

                                    

                                          


                          
Drew Gaither
                          
Professor Brown 
                          
Honours Global Issues 
                          
15 October 2020
                          
Issue Analysis 4 – To Aid or Not To Aid
                          
Foreign aid and ascertaining when to use it, how to use it, and if it achieves effective results is indeed a complex and nuanced issue. Chiefly, this is because it sets up "competing interests" between our country and others. Before delving further into the foreign aid debate, it should be noted that the United States is ranked number one as a global economic superpower, followed by China. The United States flexes its influence abroad in various fashions and has historically and increasingly acted as an imperialist colonial power. Far beyond just foreign aid, US governmental and economic policies affect nearly every country in the world to some extent or another. Many colonialist practices hurt and stunt growth in foreign economies, which include: waging illegal and offensive wars, overthrowing populist leaders in business-adversarial countries, stoking ethnic conflict in competing nation-states, and practising cronyism and predatory capitalist schemes—like structured adjustment programs, state bureaucratic consumption of aide and economic prosperity for a country, and resource and labour exploitation by multinational corporations. 
                          
Given the United States' involvement in the destabilising and stunting of foreign economies, it is a responsibility of the United States to provide aid to such places that our policies have helped CRIPPLE; it is also a responsibility of the United States to address the roots of the necessity of aide in the first place, and that is in large part influenced by American POLICY. Aide needs to not only be effective and resourceful (like discussed in the video) but also be tied to a slew of policy changes and a fundamental re-emphasise of priorities at the national level. Part of the problem with the United States' ability to provide adequate, effective and meaningful aid and policies for these afflicted places stems from the same place that prevents the government from providing such aid to its own people. Poverty, homelessness, lack of healthcare, education, or quality infrastructure all still remain important issues AT HOME. Places in America go without clean water, and people are exposed to dangerous and cancerous chemicals through coal mining, fracking, and other hazardous pollutant practices. These needs are not being met at home, so of course, they aren't being met overseas either. The fundamental reason for this is THE WHO? is running the country. It is not merely (IF MUCH AT ALL) President Donald Trump, but rather all the ELITE GROUPS of oligarchic interests (represented through lobbyists and direct communique between politicians and the donor class) who exist as such because of the opportunities afforded via capitalism to EXPLOIT and CONTROL. Their greed, ineptitude, and CALLOUS adoration for our DESTRUCTIVE and WASTEFUL empire and its horrendous policies keep America and the rest of the world in PERPETUAL STAGNATION.
                          
If the United States is to provide meaningful aid abroad, those practices must STEM from doing such AID AT HOME. Our PRIORITIES must SHIFT both nationally as well as internationally—IN TANDEM— if we hope to secure MEANINGFUL PROSPERITY for everyone around THE GLOBE: further beyond changing priorities, and greater than just writing checks to people in need. Aide needs to be more SOPHISTICATED, more DIRECT, and more USEFUL to these communities than what our conventional society standards would innovate. Aide needs training attached to it and a complex and diverse set of laws and initiatives to achieve a POSITIVE OUTCOME. The RULERS OF OUR SOCIETY must be PUSHED OUT and REPLACED with BOLD PEOPLE who are WILLING to FUNDAMENTALLY uproot and redesign our political and economic systems.