Taxpayer Aid to the Developing World and Global Warming

Welfare rarely works and only serves to make those who receive it dependent upon the State.  But what if that welfare was not from the State to individuals but to other countries?  And what if that welfare was several billion dollars per year and was based on fake science and was going to be sent to countries riddled by corruption?

It’s all set to happen, this time from the European Union and it’s all about “global warming.”

The European Union on Friday pledged €2.4bn ($3.5bn) in annual financing to boost developing nations’ efforts to fight global warming – an amount that exceeded previous expectations.

The EU contribution to the so-called “fast-start” fund, which will cover the period from 2010 to 2012, was boosted by last-minute shows of generosity from the UK and France.

Gordon Brown, the UK prime minister, raised his nation’s three-year contribution from £800m to £1.2bn ($1.9bn, €1.3bn). At a joint press conference in Brussels with Nicolas Sarkozy, French president, Mr Brown also announced that he would be prepared to boost that to £1.5bn next week, depending on efforts made by other developed nations at Copenhagen.

What is so alarming is about this is that the EU president wants other countries to do the same:

“We hope that others will match our figures and our ambition. Finance is key to get this deal done,” Mr Barroso said.

The problem with talking about corruption and developing countries is it is very difficult to get accurate information as to just how corrupt these nations really are when compared to their Western counterparts.  But, if we look at an article from December of 2009 about Greece, we can imagine how much worse things would be in countries where the population lives on less than $1 per day:

George Papandreou, Greece’s prime minister, acknowledged to his fellow European Union leaders that the Greek public sector was riddled with corruption.

“He recognised that there was a huge problem of corruption throughout the administration, including in public procurement,” Mr Barroso said.

The corruption one finds in developing nations is fueled by a lack of accountability and the increasing amounts of aid sent by First World nations:

Now the thing about tax-funded development assistance is that there is virtually zero evidence it actually works. Since the 1960s, when such programmes really got going, it is reckoned that Western taxpayers have spent around $1.8 trillion on them. Yet many of the recipient countries have made virtually no economic progress. Indeed, some have actually gone backwards.

And because most of the money is spent thousands of miles away from the prying eyes of the funding taxpayers, there is virtually no oversight. And virtually no come-back when each new brainwave finally flops, only to be replaced by the next one.

According to a recent article by the UK’s Daily Telegraph website, billions of dollars are spent by England on “overseas aid” and not a single country on that list has ever come out of poverty as a result of these programs.

Targetted aid to specific areas (like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations’ work regarding drinking water in Third World nations is one example) can acheive results but as we saw during Bill Clinton’s Iraq Sanctions, if it is generalized the money simply goes into the hands of dictators and the population suffers.

What is worrisome is that the Liberals in Washington will not only increase this type of wasteful welfare but now will tie “global warming” to it trying in order to try and create some sort of moral reasons why American taxpayers should throw more of their money out the window on junk science and corruption.

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