We The Peeps

Author: SahSen (5 Articles)

Average Dude

I’ve always had the understanding that the US was one of the most generous nations on the planet to poor nations needing help. I guess I maybe a victum of the mainstream media. In terms of dollars the numbers we donate seem high but I ran across this in a book I’ve been reading.

Quoting: Another measure of the health of a society is how generous the affluent are to the poor. Figure 4.4 (if interested see link below and page down 12 times) show the Official Development Assistance (ODA) measured as a percentage of Gross National Income (GNI) by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC), consisting of 22 nations of the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. This figure shows that the US falls well behind the rest of the developed world in Generosity. Relative to the other affluent OECD nations the US is quite stingy. The UN set a target for the richer nations to contribute .7% of their Gross National Index (an index similar to the GDP and GNP) to the poorer nations. The average contribution for these wealthier nations is .46% what that of the US is .18%, only marginally above that of Greece. The US allocation per year comes to $76 per person, hardly generous considering that the average per capita income in the US is much greater than the other nations. Compare this to the approximately $2,090 per US citizen spent yearly on the military. The US is responsible for over 50% of the arms expenditures in the world. These two numbers give a sense of the values of the nation.

http://www.globalissues.org/article/35/us-and-foreign-aid-assistance

So I guess all I’m saying is that this was a surprising set of stats for me.
SahSen

Definition of GNI
Gross national income (GNI) comprises the total value produced within a country (i.e. its gross domestic product), together with its income received from other countries (notably interest and dividends), less similar payments made to other countries.
The GNI consists of: the personal consumption expenditures, the gross private investment, the government consumption expenditures, the net income from assets abroad (net income receipts), and the gross exports of goods and services, after deducting two components: the gross imports of goods and services, and the indirect business taxes. The GNI is similar to the gross national product (GNP), except that in measuring the GNP one does not deduct the indirect business taxes.
For example, the profits of a US-owned company operating in the UK will count towards US GNI and UK GDP, but will not count towards UK GNI or US GDP.