America Stingy? That's Unpossible!

Thanks again to Black Sheep Christian comes this editorial from the NYT. I am glad to see this story have some legs and now respectfully wait for the conservative evangelical community to express their outrage that we are not helping more than we are. Right?

Couple of key points from this editorial:

"According to a poll, most Americans believe the United States spends 24 percent of its budget on aid to poor countries; it actually spends well under a quarter of 1 percent."

That is very interesting when you add it to the fact that we give less as a percentage of our GNP than any other industrial nation. Americans, I think, have so internalized our superiority, that they simply assume that we give more than others. Kind of like the joke about everything being bigger in Texas, Americans just assume that we are better. But we aren't.

The sad part is that there is much good in this country. But Bush isn't it. And those who support him are not helping our cause. In fact, Bush has been playing with your perception of your own superiority. Our so-called moral superiority is more about show than about reality--especially under the brush cutter.

"Bush administration officials help create that perception gap. Fuming at the charge of stinginess, Mr. Powell pointed to disaster relief and said the United States 'has given more aid in the last four years than any other nation or combination of nations in the world.' But for development aid, America gave $16.2 billion in 2003; the European Union gave $37.1 billion. In 2002, those numbers were $13.2 billion for America, and $29.9 billion for Europe.

Making things worse, we often pledge more money than we actually deliver. Victims of the earthquake in Bam, Iran, a year ago are still living in tents because aid, including ours, has not materialized in the amounts pledged. And back in 2002, Mr. Bush announced his Millennium Challenge account to give African countries development assistance of up to $5 billion a year, but the account has yet to disperse a single dollar."

This does not take into account some of the great things that individual Americans have done. We can and should do more as a country. But we can also give of our own wealth.