Foreign Aid Benefits

A survey published in 2013 by the Pew Research Center found that an increasing number of Americans want the US to “mind its own business internationally and let other countries get along the best they can on their own.” 52% of Americans agreed with this statement, which was the highest it had ever been since the survey was first conducted in 1963 (Drew). More and more people are expressing this sentiment just as frustrating international problems seem to be escalating. Disease outbreaks, poverty, a refugee influx in Europe, and the problems that ISIS poses are just the beginning. People are beginning to wonder why we should even feel the responsibility to help struggling countries when many of our own citizens are destitute and our national …show more content…
It is better to think of foreign aid as an investment where the growth we stimulate in developing countries by providing developmental assistance, promoting peace, education, and health assistance, provides friendlier and wealthier customers to buy US products. Currently, the top 43 consumers of American agricultural products have been past recipients of American foreign aid. Big companies recognize the economic advantage in bringing others out of poverty and in 2012, over 50 of the most recognizable and most successful in the US, including Microsoft, Coca-Cola, and Boeing, sent a letter to Congress urging them to continue to protect an international affairs budget. The letter on foreign aid programs, declared that “while just 1% of the federal budget, these programs are vital for achieving a more prosperous future for American businesses and the U.S. economy.” As these companies correctly asserted, the fastest growing markets for US products are in developing nations. For the cost of improving the lives of millions of people around the world we are actually making ourselves …show more content…
Stories about government officials covering their own expenses or even running off with hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is a concern that shouldn’t be ignored, but we should not forget that relative to the number of saved lives, the amount of money lost to corruption is unimportant. Bill gates in his same letter pointed out that “four of the past seven governors of Illinois have gone to prison for corruption, and to my knowledge no one has demanded that Illinois schools be shut down or its highways closed.” The intended benefactors of foreign aid, impoverished and struggling families, should not be the ones punished because some of the money is misused or ends up in the wrong