This chart shows how much the United States gave to other countries in foreign aid, listing only the 25 countries with the largest dollar amounts, in 2012.
Some things about this list are surprising, some are not.
Afghanistan makes sense.
Israel does not to me. Only $25 million of Israel’s portion is economic assistance, the $3 billion is military assistance. Really? Does Israel need our military assistance? Israel is a rich, badass country with an attitude. They compete in our country against our U.S. firms for government and commercial contracts. If we give money to Israel, we might as well give money to Japan and Germany!
Iraq makes sense.
Then there is Egypt. Most of that money, over $1 billion, is military aid. Egypt is a corrupt country. Recently there was a military coup. I must say that it bothers me that we’re giving money to Egypt.
Then, on number 13 is the mother of all ludicrous names on this list: Russia! WHAT? $339 million is for economic aid, $109 million military aid. They must be outright laughing at us. What is wrong with our country? After all that is going on, we are providing military and economic aid to Russia.
So they can provoke us better.
I think the “aid” to Israel is partially an indirect subsidy for US defense industry (whether this is effective is another question), and might be the case for other countries in the list as well: give them money to buy US weaponry.
Nikita Khrushchev once threatened that the U.S. would sell Russia the rope they would use to hang us. I’ll bet he never imagined that we would GIVE them the rope!
Norbert, you are so right. What the hell is the U.S. doing? They send money for strategic bases since WWII. We could use that money for our citizens in need. Instead of helping Israel build a wall, we could have built a needed wall at our southern borders.
My old hospital saved money by not given me a CT test. I had a malignant tumor growing in my small bowels. I went to another hospital where they found the malignant tumor as large as an apple. It had metastasized, I am terminal. They can send money to all of those countries while hospitals here are letting seniors die to save money. No expensive test after 65yrs of age. After al they say, your life expectancy is near. It’s appalling. When I finally received a CT, the hospital saw a questionable mass and did not examine it, instead, they discharged me!!!. The City hospital saved my life. What’s happing in the name of greed? Another view, hospitals are saving themselves money by not giving tests and also the government saves money by eliminating seniors who deserves the money after years of putting their funds into SSI. Now we’re being eliminated, The New York State Department of Health said that Mt, Sinai, NYC, did no wrong. What??? and I have terminal cancer. This eliminates my need for SSI money. The private hospitals and the government save money as senior citizens lose their lives. I’ve met 5 people so far who are in stage 4 cancer, because they were not given CT’s until stage 4 cancer. It’s a shame.
It’s the new age expectancy policy. If your life expectancy is less than 9 years according to statistics, and you are very ill, they do not have to give you expensive tests. Here is the website for the policy.
https://www.yahoo.com/health/the-medical-tests-some-people-over-65-may-not-need-95206481042.html
I am sorry to hear about your battles with the health care system. I often say that you can see the priorities of a society when you check what it spends its money on. Missiles in Syria, military in Israel, foreign aid in Russia. Meanwhile, our seniors and veterans are left to die by policies made by insurance companies. Remember the “death panels?”