Jan 19 2024

It Might Not Have Started That Way…

By Francis W. Porretto in Foreign aid, government

…but in our time:

Besides, how else could all those autocrats and tyrants in Third World hellholes get so rich? Did you know that infamous “Palestinian” terrorist Yasser Arafat had accumulated a personal fortune of over $1 billion before he died? Where do you suppose it came from, considering that the man never did one constructive thing in his life?

Loans made by one government to another do not answer to any of the proper conditions of credit. The money lent belongs to the people of the lending nation, not to the officials who grant the loan; and it becomes a charge upon the people of the borrowing nation, not upon the officials who negotiate the loan and spend the money. There is no collateral, and no means of collection by private action. If the debt is not paid, war or the threat of war is the only recourse. Meantime private production is wrecked; the economy of the lending nation has to bear the capital loss; while the economy of the borrowing nation is loaded with the dead weight of government projects (buildings, armies, etc.) for which the money is spent. It is an infallible formula for disaster. – Isabel Paterson, The God of the Machine

You could learn more about politics and economics from reading The God of the Machine than by earning bachelor’s degrees in both subjects.

It’s time for it to go…and, God willing, never return.

1 comment

- NITZAKHON on January 19, 2024 at 12:57 PM
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First, the specific:
I am, as you can imagine and know if anyone’s followed me for a while over at The Grok (and my thanks, again, to Francis for having let me be here for a while) that I’m very supportive of Israel. But in my last Israel-related post I had an entry about foreign aid to Israel. I want, very much, for this aid to be diminished and ideally ended (suitably phased out) after the latest unpleasantness is over:

And this is one reason why I want to see Israel weaned from American largess: if Israel – or ANY COUNTRY – wants to see itself as independent, it cannot be dependent on any outside agent or country. This applies to EVERY recipient of American aid.
Now, my understanding – incomplete – of the aid the US gives to Israel is that some, and I don’t know the percent, was given “in perpetuity” as a sweetener incentivizing Israel to return the Sinai to Egypt. This needs to be accommodated and somehow a phase-out negotiated. The same for all aid to any country. In the case of Israel specifically, I have seen several “man on the street” interviews and many seem to support this idea – of course, I don’t know the sample size or actual data. Also note that, at least insofar as military aid goes, Israel is required to spend… 80 percent?… back in America buying weapons.

Aid to Israel, specifically, is a sore point for many. It creates Israel as a “kept state”; lastly, as Francis observed, it – and in general – all ongoing foreign aid is more and more seen as nothing more than a conduit for money laundering. (Consider – and repeating from the quote – something like 80% of the military aid, at least, must be spent in America… that’s a simple kickback to Congresscritters from the defense industry.)
More broadly, I went on:

Again, this needs to be true of every country America gives money to. Increasingly, any foreign aid is becoming clear as nothing more than money laundering back to US politicians.
It should be a matter of national pride to stand on one’s own. That doesn’t mean to avoid alliances, nor does it mean countries don’t help each other. But Israel – and many other nations – are client states of the US because of that ongoing aid; NATO’s strength is largely because of America’s defense budget that too many NATO members sloughed off on supporting. That needs to stop, for the sake of those countries addicted to American money, and for the American taxpayer too.

I am becoming vastly disillusioned with the state of America. So much of what I believed to be true from early youth to now is proving to be a falsehood. Sigh.