Outline Journal

Persuasive Essay (Title?)

I. Introduction

A. Attention Getter: The idea of helping a nation in need with foreign aid sounds nice, but when put into action, is just a waste of time.

B. Preview of main points:

i. Foreign Aid is stolen or wasted.

ii. Foreign Aid delays economic growth.

iii. Foreign Aid dependency forms from the countries receiving it.

C. Thesis: The United States needs to cut foreign aid to developing nations because resources are stolen or wasted, economic growth is delayed, and a dependency on aid is formed.

II. The idea of helping a nation in need with foreign aid sounds beneficial and necessary but when put into action it doesn’t work.

A. Too much foreign aid is being sent to the nations in need for it to be wasted and to not be used correctly.

a. Marian Tupy, a senior fellow at the Legatum Institute in London, in an article of the Wall Street Journal, said “Over the last half-century, hundreds of billions in foreign-aid dollars, pounds, and euros have been stolen or wasted” (17).

i. Not only is money being wasted but it’s also being stolen by elite, high-status members of the countries receiving aid.

ii. In the same article by Tupy, the Nigerian president of 2002, Olusegun Obasanjo, said that $140 billion has been pocketed by African leaders.

b. The money being used to fund these prodigal nations is a way for middle to low-class taxpayers in rich countries to pay for wealthy elite in poor countries.

i. The poor stay poor and earn ire contempt of politicians and citizens alike in rich countries, while more well-off businesses and middlemen take it to the bank.

ii. In the Washington Times, Doug Bandow, senior fellow at the Cato Institute said, “As much as a billion dollars has disappeared from public funds or been stolen from international aid projects through fraud.”

Transition: While all this money goes to these countries for it to be wasted, it just delays economic growth for the countries consistently receiving it.

B. Having all that money in their pockets hinders them advancing economically going forward on their own.

a. Jim DeMint of the Wall Street Journal said “American taxpayers sent $40 billion to Greece last year…, to stave off an economic collapse. But the bailout did not prevent Greece’s day of fiscal bank. It only delayed it.”

i. The burden put on poor nations by receiving aid hinders industries and business advancements.

ii. The foreign aid is similar to a traffic jam on the road to economic growth in developing nations.

b. Banking systems and their departments also have an effect on economic delays.

i. Again in Doug Bandow’s article, it’s said Bosnia’s Hidrogradnja, one of its largest banking firms, had failed to repay one million dollars in loans and the agency sued 19 companies that failed to repay more than ten million dollars’ worth of loans.

ii. Bosnia and other countries alike do not benefit from aid trying to help them.

c. Countries such as Africa slowly start going backward at a slow rate and continue to stay poor.

i. Referring back to Marian Tupy’s article, “Africa receives a majority of foreign aid, as much as 12 times that of India per person between 1975 and 2005, but over the same period India grew at a rate of 3.5 percent, while Africa shrunk at annual rate of 0.16% a year.”

ii. Things like this in countries receiving aid are what delay money processing and economic growth.

Transition: On top of wasting foreign aid and delaying economic growth, foreign aid also allows countries to form a dependency instead of helping themselves advance forward.

C. Dependent nations are unable to survive on their own, which is why they think they need foreign aid.

a. Ethiopia is one example of a country too dependent on foreign aid, Mammo Muchie said, in Business Daily, “For, most of the past three decades, it has survived on millions of tons of donated food and millions of dollars in cash. It has received more emergency support than any other African nation at that time.”

i. Aid has also led to corruption with governments receiving aid.

b. Ramesh Thakur of the Australian (Canberra) said, “Aid corrupts because much of the money disappears into the pockets of the well-connected. Aid softens the need for a government to forge a bond with its citizens by raising revenue and re-distributing those funds and services.”

i. Corruption leads to major problems politically, economically, and socially such as forged elections, money embezzlement and unfair treatment to citizens.

ii. For these countries to survive, they have to stand on their own two feet.

c. If we give to other nations in need, it should be for political reasons and for economic benefits that we know can work.

i. In the Washington Post, Charles Krauthammer said “It is perfectly reasonable to cut off foreign aid to developing nation governments that are primarily hostile and beyond our influence.”

ii. Nonetheless, we should cut off aid to developing nations and other nations alike that continuously feed off of the U.S. and rely on aid to survive.

Counterargument: We need to give aid to countries so they don’t become unstable.

A. We have a global economy so everything is interconnected. If a country falls it rattles the stock markets.

B. Bring in a source that says this.

Rebuttal: Slippery slope and fear-mongering. Countries have fallen before and it does not necessarily create a drag on the economy.

Counterargument: Giving aid makes the US a moral force in the world.

A. At the end of World War II, we established ourselves as the moral force for good in the world, against communism, etc. Gives us good standing among allies.

B. Source for this.

Rebuttal: There are other things we can do to improve our moral standing in the world, such as lead on climate change. This does not have to be an either/or fallacy.

III. Conclusion

a. Review of main points:

i. Today, I discussed the wasteful nature of foreign aid.

ii. Secondly, I targeted how economic growth is delayed from receiving foreign aid.

iii. Lastly, I addressed how foreign nations become dependent and corrupt off of foreign aid.

b. Restate Thesis: The United States needs to cut foreign aid to developing nations because resources are stolen or wasted, economic growth is delayed, and a dependency on aid is formed.

c. Closure: Although foreign aid could be helpful instead of wasted, the U.S. should focus on putting itself first before helping others.