>>mentioned some time ago my first encounter with Cheddar cheese CARE rations back in my youth.<<
Germany is a good example of the kind of thing I am thinking about. After WWII, instead of forcing Germany to pay reparations and further crushing the German economy, we helped rehabilitate its economy. Germany is the third largest economy in the world - the second is Japan, also our enemy during WWII, which we also helped rehabilitate. Uncle Sam bought the cheese from the dairyman, payed them with tax dollars, gave it to the Germans, who eventually bought some American goods, and the American corporation payed Uncle Sam the taxes.
Jack Kennedy said, "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." We used to believe in that kind of stuff. I am not sure what made us quit believing, but I think it was when we realized that everyone all over the world hated us. Hated the Peace Corps. Hated the missionaries. Hated the IMF. Maybe the turning point was when everyone started throwing rocks at Nixon, wherever he went, or maybe it was when they started killing Peace Corps volunteers and missionaries and nuns and bombing our embassies.
I haven't ever read a book, not even an article, about how altruism helps the global economy. I've seen lots of books about how the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, and the haves are profiting off the have-nots, and the evils of globalism, multinational corporations, capitalism in general, and Christian missionaries.
It's true that multinational corporations don't pay foreign workers as much as they pay US workers, but it's also true that they pay better than the local industries, maybe twice as much. Depending on your point of view, that could be evil. At any rate, it seems to make a lot of people very angry.
I've also seen articles, if not books, about how entrepreneurs pour money into an economy for a while (Russia, Mexico), hoping to prime the pump, and then give up because the money is just being socked away into offshore bank accounts.
I've also seen articles, if not books, about how destructive it is to an economy when the old trading routes and trading partners are lost, and how beneficial it is to an economy when trading routes and trading partners are established or re-established. The economy of one nation does not flourish in the absence of international trade, not anymore, if they ever did.
The American belief that capitalism and democracy will flourish in the presence of free trade may be naive, but we don't really understand how else it could be, because it worked for us. We threw off the shackles of mercantilism and political serfdom and established an economy and political system that is, I believe, exemplary - but how did it happen? And how can we help others to have what we have?
Hmmm. Just thought of another thing it would be worth looking at - how colonies affected economies. I know, on the one hand, that European countries with colonies seemed to benefit economically shortly after they got the colonies. But I recently read a study or two that showed that Germany actually spent much more on its colonies than it got - and that reminds me of why Napoleon sold Louisiana to Jefferson, because it was a money pit - more money going in than coming out. Maybe it functions in the same way that dumping functions - a place to sell goods at cost?
Could it be that colonies are like wars in the way they stimulate the economy? Nothing like deficit spending to get V spinning again? And I see an analogy to the dot.com phenomenon - pouring money into dot.coms and dark fiber stimulated the economy, we saw that with our own eyes. But someone has to pay the loans back, and there's the rub. Uncle Sam can do it, Napoleon couldn't, and neither could priceline.com.
>>I have much respect (I know it sounds crappy, but wth) for american way of donating time & money to community, old schools, old and new church, and the world too.<<
Doesn't everyone do that? I'm serious. |
