Mar 08 2011

Immigration by the numbers, and what doesn’t work to address world poverty

Category: Uncategorizedharmonicminer @ 10:22 am

While the video doesn’t make this point, it’s also clear that simply giving money “to poor countries” isn’t going to do a great deal of good.  In any case, while I haven’t been able to track down the source of this quote,”Foreign aid is taking money from the poor people of rich countries and giving it to the rich people of poor countries,” there is some truth in it.  Everyone who works legally in the USA pays Social Security taxes.  Since that money is just part of the overall budget (there is no “lock box” or “trust fund”), minimum wage workers in the USA are sending money to the Mubaraks of the world.

Far more people have been elevated in India in the last 30 years by its capitalist economic revival than by foreign aid from other governments or international charities.  As annoying as it is to socialists everywhere, the best thing the US can do is export capitalism and freedom.

“Micro-finance” (funding small loans to help people start businesses in poor countries) is not useless, and can help some people become self-supporting.  But for it to work, there has to be sufficient freedom and rule of law in the culture for investment and hard work to pay off.  It’s not likely to succeed when the local government boils down to a protection racket.

 

8 Responses to “Immigration by the numbers, and what doesn’t work to address world poverty”

  1. innermore says:

    You gotta be careful exporting the capitalism part. It might do well if we taught capitalism before we exported it. Free-market economies can turn into mob casinos in a heartbeat.

  2. harmonicminer says:

    Obviously we’re talking about the US model, i.e., capitalism in the context of rule of law, contract enforcement, personal economic liberty, etc. That is the formula for wealth building both for persons and societies, and has elevated more people out of poverty than all the charity in history.

    Not that we aren’t called to do charity…. we are. But it isn’t going to solve world poverty. Economic growth could.

  3. Rachel says:

    I think that’s a Ron Paul quote.

  4. harmonicminer says:

    Yes, I found him quoting it. But I’m not sure it’s his. It seems to be in a LOT of places on the web. Might be Ron Paul’s, I suppose.

  5. tonedeaf says:

    The problem with liberals is that they hate to be confused by facts.

  6. innermore says:

    I knew what model of capitalism you were talking about, and not the lefty view of it, either. Capitalism and freedom is the best “food” you can give to a poor person. Just provide plenty of napkins and watch he doesn’t choke on it.

    Chicken-and-egg question: does freedom establish capitalism, or capitalism establish freedom?

  7. harmonicminer says:

    I think you can’t have freedom/liberty without capitalism, in the sense that capitalism is the only system where you’re presumed to be working for yourself, not the state or some abstract social good or system.

    I think trying to inject capitalism into less free societies can help bring about greater freedom, over time. But it’s an uneven path, since less free societies won’t provide the protections of law that are essential for capitalism to work. As Russia has learned the hard way. Capitalism without rule of law, protection of contracts, restraint of intimidation, etc., quickly turns into oligarchy, or worse.

  8. Tom says:

    “Liberty is not the standard. Respect for authority is not the standard. Both of those things are the fruit, resulting from faithful acceptance of what God says to do.”(Feb 27 2011 “Liberty and respect for authority do not conflict”

    With out God, there can be no true Liberty and consequently, no Capitalism. IMHO the “American Model” only works as long as there is generation of people that point their moral compass at the teachings of Christianity. As long as the “Third World” continues to embrace Islam and other such religious institutions, the “American Model” can not work for them.

Leave a Reply