alone, alone i tell you
We often hear that the poorest nations are stuck in a "poverty trap" which prevents them from improving their standards of living. In fact, in the 50 years to 2001, the poorest 20 per cent of countries (excluding communist and Persian Gulf oil nations as special cases) on average increased their income by about the same amount as all other nations. Perhaps the most surprising finding in the book is that foreign aid appears to have had nothing to do with this: those nations that received below average aid improved as much as those that got above average.
Exposing the myth of Third World aid - Opinion - smh.com.au.
if these findings are true this is a boost to my warped way of thinking.
i am in parts an isolationist. i believe in fair trade rather than free trade.
i take the position that we should stay hands off with other economies. let them trade with us when they can. we shouldn’t under price, say, corn nor overprice it. we should help out in instances of disease and disaster, but let the economy take its own course. well, that is unless you want to do a 1940’s post-war japan build up. the major problem isn’t even governments giving to charities or UN programs, it’s corporations.
corporations are not people, despite what the SCOUS has said. you can’t look them in the eye. alls they care about is bottom line. in my opinion you must have something to make sure the unbridled greed of corporations. protests are good, but they are not usually sustained. thats why unions are SO important. not because you can get a job mopping floors for 17.50 an hour, but that can reign in some of the greed of the corporation. but then of course you have floor moppers making 17.50 an hour.
a corporation is without borders, it can go to the states, the UK, or the cayman islands if it wants with very little restriction (to my knowledge, i’m not a lawyer). and if there is a country that has less (or no) work laws and it has only its stockholder to answer. so it but some money into the econ and then leaves when there is a better opportunity.
there has to be oversight for our tax dollar or corporations greed. i think we should invoke the prime directive.
Tags: third world, corporations, unions
