Not only do foreign aid programs cost Americans billions each year, some of them are counterproductive. My friend Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute, highlights a new study found at Downsizinggovernment.org, that says foreign aid not only costs too much, but can even be counterproductive in its results. He writes:
The federal government funds an array of aid programs aimed at promoting growth in less-developed countries. Funding goes to federal agencies, such as the U.S. Agency for International Development, and it also goes to international aid groups, such as the World Bank.
The federal government spends more than $30 billion annually on foreign aid. Aid spending has more than doubled in the past two decades. The Trump administration has called for substantial cuts to foreign aid spending.
Ian Vásquez has published a new study on foreign aid at DownsizingGovernment.org. He argues that despite the political enthusiasm for aid, there is little evidence that it is effective. Indeed, it is often counterproductive. There is no correlation between foreign aid and economic growth, and efforts to condition the receipt of aid on market reforms have failed. As such, Ian argues that the federal government should end its development aid programs.
Read more here.
