Re: CHAT: currency [was Re: OT: the euro & 01.01.02]

Quoting Joe Hill <joe@...>:

> > America is very unusual in this respect. There was an article in
> > _The Economist_ last year that compared countries based on which
> > professions customarily receive tips for service.  America was
> > way above all the other industrialized nations, with something
> > like 40 professions that get tips, IIRC.  This has lead to
> > speculation along the lines that Americans try to make up for
> > their increasing inequity by being generous; _The Economist_
> > cast doubt on this, but I don't remember why.  (Perhaps because
> > Americans are typically more generous in giving to charities in
> > the general, which is certainly true relative to most European
> > countries; I don't know for sure.)
>
> Well, European countries tend to give more official aid to 3rd world
> countries.
This is certainly true on the governmental level; the US government
gives about 25 billion dollars a year to foreign governments, which,
as a percentage of GDP, is much smaller than, say, Denmark's.  The
question, though, is how much of this money actually gets into the
hands of people who so desperately need it.  It is well known that
much of the foreign aid that the developed world gives the developing
world simply gets lost into the blackhole of corruption and outright
oppression.  This is one reason (in addition to selfishness) that the
US government doesn't do more for poor countries:  it doesn't do much
good. (When the US government does give money abroad, there are usually
strings attached, like getting your educational system working and
making jurisprudence more transparent, changes which will tend to end
the need for foreign aid in the first place.)  By contrast, the money
that individuals in the developed world give to private foreign
charities often has a much better chance of sheltering and feeding
the poor and needy, because it is not being funneled through state
agencies where most of the corruption occurs.

=====================================================================
Thomas Wier <trwier@...> <http://home.uchicago.edu/~trwier>

             "...koruphàs hetéras hetére:isi prosápto:n /
Dept. of Linguistics  mú:tho:n mè: teléein atrapòn mían..."
University of Chicago "To join together diverse peaks of thought /
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