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Comment by systemvoltage | Hacker News Reader

Honest question - why do we send so much foreign aid but don't fix our own backyard? This has been going on for decades and there must be an opportunity cost here. Sure some things cannot be solved by just throwing more money at it, but a lot of things can be.

I remember this was a popular topic in pro Ron Paul 2008 reddit discussions.

More people are eager to help Ukraine than our own states. They'd be ashamed infact.

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When you say "send so much foreign aid", how much do you think we send? It's around 1% of the federal budget (maybe not this year, but until 2021 at least). In contrast, the federal government "sends" 16% of its budget to states (in 2019 at least), and obviously the rest of government spending is intended to at least indirectly benefit people in US states.

Ironically, googling sources for this is difficult because almost every result is about how Americans think we send 10-25% of the federal budget as foreign aid, but the actual number is far less.

US foreign aid is mostly synonymous to defense spending. They give money to other countries with the agreement that they will buy from the American weapons manufacturers. So, in a sense this "aid" is just a give out to the US war industry. Even when the money is earmarked as food and medicine aid, the beneficiaries are (surprise) the American agricultural and pharmaceutical industries, respectively.

I suspect a lot of foreign aid is actually used to stabilize parts of the world so they don't turn into hotspots for things like terrorism. Not that there isn't a wish to improve the lives of others, but it is easier and cheaper to maintain the status quo.

Ukraine accepts aid.

States reject aid.

People are willing to help, but people have to be willing to be helped.

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