United States Agency for International Development Essay

Instead of giving handouts, the U.S. should allow poor countries figure things out for themselves. “The American way” doesn’t work for everyone and countries, without help, should figure out what kind of system works best for them. Meanwhile, the United can use the money that is given as foreign aid on itself.

Foreign aid is something that is provided by donating governments to countries in need, mostly third-world countries. Foreign aid is allocated for two extremely broad categories, economic development and military aid. Under these categories there are specific uses for foreign aid like, health, humanitarian assistance, democratic elections and even protection for forests. There is debate about foreign aid being a waste because of corrupt governments, which gives the United States speculation whether it should continue to provide foreign aid and how much. This was a popular topic in the 2012 election between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. It would be most beneficial to the United States to maintain foreign aid levels while having conditions

Many skeptics challenge the reasoning for investing so much money into helping so many other countries when that money could instead help us improve internal affairs. After all, foreign aid spending has increased to $50 billion a year today, which could be put towards funding education to ensure that more kids go to college and possibly affecting the innovation of the future(Morris). Giving more than you receive is nice, but when it involves a country 's financial crisis, maybe it 's best if Santa cuts back some of this year 's presents. And although the argument may be valid, lending out a helping hand can create more allies than enemies to help us in return when we need it. In fact, foreign aid only accounts for 0.5 percent of the federal budget (Stearn). Compared to all the other matters at hand that the government is worrying about, the amount of spending put into aiding poorer countries is positive in both a moral aspect and a political aspect.

Ever had that one friend? The one who tries to help, but no matter how hard he tries, he just aggravates the situation. This friend, Steve, insists he is helping, and those around, too, would support that he is indeed helping. But Steve is actually worsening the circumstances. He is like countries who provide foreign aid to less developed countries. Foreign aid, defined as “the international transfer of capital, goods, or services from a country or international organization for the benefit of the recipient country or its population,” can be military, economic, or humanitarian (“Foreign”). It is often granted to less developed countries in order to evoke government reforms or to stimulate economic growth. However, foreign aid neither elicits government reform, nor does it consistently and reliably stimulate economic growth; therefore, the United States should discontinue providing foreign economic aid.

The United States is one of the industrialized countries that offer a small amount of aid. ( Fact Based)

Throughout history and present day times, many countries such as Germany, France, and Canada have provided assistance and aid to underdeveloped countries to help alleviate poverty. The United States itself issues aid to developing countries which include Israel, Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Ethiopia; this has been an American practice since 1947 after World War II. During the time period from 1947 to 1949 the United States, under the Marshall Plan, provided both financial and technical assistance to Europe and Asia after the war. As a result, Europe was rebuilt both politically and economically. Today the United States continues to provide aid to underdeveloped countries, helping them evolve and strengthen their economy. Many Americans believe that America is doing the right thing in issuing aid, while others hold the opinion that the United States should not issue aid, and that the issue of money to developing countries needs to stop.

As a civilized nation who is a leader in development and progress, the United States Federal Government has a responsibility to provide foreign aid.

Riddell, Roger C. 2007. Does Foreign Aid Really Work? 1st ed. OXFORD: Oxford University Press, USA.

The foreign country receiving aid needs to receive the correct type of help for them to get out of poverty. If they received affordable education and studies, they will be able to obtain skills needed to improve and stabilize their country. When they receive certain skills, they will be more prominent to get jobs to help provide for them. With better education, they will be able to form a strong country and become wealthy. The United States has many resources already, so much that the government pays farmers not to grow crops.

First of all, giving financial aid to other countries helps them to continue their current way of life with ease. However, by giving aid in the form of money, medical supplies, and food hinders hard working people because they have to pay taxes, for a service that does not benefit them in any way. If aid is constantly given to poor countries, we will eventually find ourselves in hardship situations, and we will have no one to help us in future times of need. Each and every country should have its own unassisted emergency fund in case of natural disaster or any other form of tragedy, and should not be dependent upon the U.S. every time they are in need. If handouts are frequently given to poor countries, they may

Australian Aid (the Australian Agency for International Development) is when money, goods and skills from a developed country is transferred to a developing country. The Australian Aid program grants approximately 5 billion dollars worth of Aid. Australia gives aid across in a large variety countries (seen in Figure 1). The most assistance given is to our closest neighbours in the Pacific and East Asia. Their is a large amount of poor people in our region, this is where Australia can make the most difference.

The act of cutting spending from other sectors could potentially have a negative impact on the national security of the United States. One of the most important sectors outside of defense spending related to boosting the strength of national security is foreign aid. Foreign aid has been used as a tool by the United States to stabilize weak states and build alliances with states that could potentially become dangerous adversaries in the future. One of the most significant historic examples of foreign aid was the Marshall Plan in the aftermath of World War II, a conflict in which much of Europe had been decimated by the violence of the war and was unable to rebuild without outside aid (Sarkesian 12). The United States had emerged as the strongest

"Between 1945 and 1983 the U.S. gave away $321 billion in foreign assistance, concessional loans, military aid, and humanitarian assistance." (Cato Policy Report, 1991) The Clinton administration task force admitted that, "Despite decades of foreign assistance, most of Africa and parts of Latin America, Asia and the Middle East are economically worse off today than they were 20 years ago." (Conservative Chronicle, 1994) United States financial aid does not help the problem it stabilizes it until it's withdrawn.

The arguments on aid have been seen largely from two perspectives: idealistic and realistic points of view. The idealist arguments are normative, with no real possibilities of assessing their validity. In contrast, evidence can be gathered to test the economic consequences of aid although different interpretations of the evidence are always possible and disagreements over the conclusiveness of the test are

In 1954, United States of America started to help developing countries by operating the new assistant program. America gave farm surpluses to developing countries and succeeded to stabilize farm prices. Later on, United States of America provided the biggest monetary help to developing nations. Especially in 2004, America accounted 54% of the world’s foreign aid. Also, since 2002, America is supporting more than 65 countries with more than two billion dollars in average. However, some people are criticizing about the American way of supporting developing nations. Since America gives developing nations money and food supplies, this can undermine developing nations’ self-reliance and make them wait for other nations to help them. Thus, America is finding ways to help developing nations to become independent economically. Some American organizations are even teaching them proper ways to farm and grow crops to help them become gradually