The One Campaign - Forced Charity?

Question

Just read this...blew...my...mind - and flipped my perspective like nothing else could...what do you think?

http://prayershack.freeservers.com/article_theonecampaign.html

Answer 1

Foreign aid is more than forced charity. There are often economic and security benefits to the donor nation as well.

I'm not necessarily in favor of the One Campaign program, but the blog entry you have linked contains erroneous information.

It's true that the stated goal of One Campaign is to get aid for global health and extreme poverty in the amount of 1% of the US budget. With 25 billion a year, One Campaign said it can "help enroll 77 million children into grade school... provide water to almost 450 million people... save almost 5.4 million young children from dying of diseases...with low-cost measures like vaccinations or a well for clean water."
http://www.one.org/faq#What%20is%20ONE

The additional 25 billion per year would not have to come out of a tax increase. Since it's only 1% of the budget, government spending could be reallocated and waste eliminated to make up for the additional expenditure.

For example, approximately 1/3 of the US foreign aid budget presently goes to Israel. Considering that Israel has over 400 nukes, and is the wealthiest nation in the middle east, perhaps they do not need this much US aid. More than 250 billion of taxpayer dollars is being spent each year on the Iraq war.

Does the US really give more than any other nation in foreign aid? This is often stated by conservatives, but the claim is not backed up by fact. On a list of the top 21 industrial nations, the US's per capita contribution ranked at # 19.

"Conservatives exaggerated foreign aid to declare U.S. "most generous nation"
http://mediamatters.org/items/200501040003

Answer 2

Im not surprised. The USA already gives the biggest share of funding to humanitarian projects but its basically a redistribution of wealth like many other 'projects'.
Get the USA to pay for it those greedy bastards. Its odd I saw a question earlier regarding why doesnt the USA require employers to give 43 vacation days like Italy gets.
So you have people wanting the USA to give the world money but also be less productive. wonder how that will work. ;P