🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <5d5e4a50.0410211319.52d73021@posting.google.com>, DTaylor
<dtaylor@3rivers.net> wrote:

> Tim May <timcmay@removethis.got.net> wrote in message
> news:<201020041103547714%timcmay@removethis.got.net>...

> > And the more "aid" that is sent, the worse things will get. 
> > 
> > (This is what helped to destroy Somalia: what  happens to local farmers
> > when Uncle Sam ships in cargo ships filled with free grain? They go
> > bankrupt. Such is it always. Handouts make people dependent and destroy
> > what little chance there is of a local economic recovery.)

> There was an article (front page) in the Salt Lake Tribune on August 8
> that highlighted the very point Tim is making.  Due to the high volume
> of clothing donated to African countries, the clothing industry in
> most of Africa has been virtually wiped out, destroyed, bankrupt.  The
> people that were to be helped by the aid now have fewer jobs and a
> reduced chance for any economic recovery.
> 
> By the way, the clothing donated by people is auctioned off to various
> levels of distribution for sale to the end user.  So much for charity.
>  Somehow, these starving people manage to find the money to buy
> designer cast-offs.
> 
> 40 years of hand-outs to third world countries has produced starvation
> and poverty on a scale unheard of prior to the beginning of the
> hand-outs.  Way to go.

This "counterintuitive" result (that aid makes things worse) makes more
sense the deeper one looks. The Somalia example I cited was the example
that make it crystal clear to me: farmers went bankrupt as "free food"
was handed out. And once bankrupt, the _next_ season was much, much
worse.

The U.S. has all sorts of "anti-dumping" provisions in its import laws,
designed to stop Korea, for example, from "dumping" RAM chips or LCD
displays at prices that are deemed to be too low. (I don't support such
laws, but that's another story.) The idea is that Korea or Japan could
supply products and drive American companies out of business...exactly
analogous to supplying free stuff to Haitians.

When we supply free clothing to Africa, or large amounts of grain to
Haiti, or free shoes in Bangla Desh, we destroy the local economy in
those things. We are, in effect, "dumping." A short term apparent good
thing, but a long term worsening of things.

Haiti's problems are much worse than Sudan's or Somalia's problems, for
various reasons. But feeding the population for a month or two
certainly will not solve any of these  deep problems. All it will do is
keep some people alive longer, supply the black market with goods to
sell, and force many of the remaining farmers out of business.

--Tim May