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To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (13960)	6/3/2002 8:26:37 PM
From: Dayuhan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21057

much of "foreign aid" is a sham. What goes to the recipients isn't money but goods- -goods manufactured here in the US. It creates a captive export market that US taxpayers pay for. US manufacturers are often part of the force pushing these bills. And of course, these same manufacturers hardly want the product they manufacture pouring in from some 3rd world nation at 1/3 the price. Actually the aid industry - a big business by any standard - has become focused more on services than goods. Consulting and contracting companies take large shares of the aid pie. The companies promoting protectionism are not, I suspect, the ones directly involved in aid. It's just a reflexive courting of the labor and farm votes, putting up barriers against products like sugar, vegetable oil, fruits, textiles, etc. In the process we do a great deal to keep poor countries poor and dependent. The Japanese and Western Europeans are as guilty as we are. The combined effect is that many poor countries are effectively barred from exporting the only products they can competitively produce. This is not something that does their economies any good, or something that encourages political stability and/or responsible leadership....