Why do we give so much money out to countries in foreign aid, when millions of children live in poverty here?

Question

We have millions of children living in poverty in this country, yet we send billions in foreign aid to other countries. Why can't we solve our poverty problems first?

Answer 1

Sad but true. It is devastating seeing all those kids in other countries with the distended belly, and medical problems that are horrendous. But I have to say if we can give someone free medical treatment from another country including getting them here and family here, why can't we give that same medical treatment to someone here. Be a single mom trying to work and you can't afford health insurance and see what kind of medical care you get. I know I have been there.

Answer 2

We can't solve the unsolvable, but we can reduce the pain associated with it.

The US doesn't send all that much to other countries really, as Andrew pointed out.
What he incorrectkly states is that poverty can be reduced by transfer payments, but of course that is false. Since poverty is by definition having less money than needed, providing that money does in fact end the poverty of the receiver.
And many european nations have far less poverty than the US because they do just that.

Answer 3

Foreign aid is a tiny, tiny percentage of our government's budgets; the largest expenditures are by far our social services programs, including health care and "transfer payments" to senior citizens. Substantial amounts are also spent on public housing, food, public transport, public education, and other forms of "social services."

History has shown that taking money from one group and "giving" it to another group does little to alleviate poverty. Socialist countries in Europe and Asia tried this for years and merely ended up with large bureaucracies and moribund economies.

It probably is true that the US spends far too much on older citizens (health care, nursing homes, social security) and far far too little on younger workers and children. Public education in particular has been very poorly run in most instances; a tiny fraction of what's spent on life support for retirees is spent on women, infants, and children.

But foreign aid is far, far smaller than even that amount; anyway, most foreign aid dollars are then spent on American made products or farm goods, which flows back into our economy and is to our benefit.

We were, I think, the first country to face obesity as a health problem for our nation's poor. Contrast this with countries in Asia, Latin America, and Africa, where people starve to death, live in huts, and die in childbirth or from health problems that we'd cure in one of our hospitals in a few days.

Are you homeless? Are you suffering from malnourishment? Did half your children die of dysentery or flu? If your in the United States, this is pretty unlikely. In much of the Third World, this happens every day to millions of people. Do you have clean drinking water? Edible food? Clothes? Probably you do. About a billion people in the world do not.

Poverty's relative. Compared to, say, Nancy Pelosi's husband, I fell pretty darn poor. Compared to most people in sub-Saharan Africa, I'm pretty g-d rich!!

Answer 4

We do it to reduce the likelihood of war and now terrorism. Actually America has become one of the stingiest nations on Earth, it used to be the most giving. Poverty is a personal productivity issue and a voluntary investment issue, governments can do little except be a fair referee in the courts and educate their populace.

Answer 5

This is because poverty in one nation is not the same as poverty in another nation. If you're in poverty in Can/US, you have old jeans and live in a tiny apartment. If you're in poverty in Ethiopia you are starving to death.