Recently the G-8 wrapped up its meeting with a pledge to, once again, flood Africa with foreign aid. Now maybe its just me but we have been pumping foreign aid into Africa for decades and it is still the poorest continent on the planet.
The countries that have achieved any economic success do it through capitalism, not with holding their hands out. Foreign aid almost never makes it to the people that it is intended to help. It ends up in the hands of the government, who spread the wealth among their supporters. If we cut all aid to Africa right now 99% of the population wouldn't even notice.
Out of the entire continent there are only 8 nations that have a GDP per capita, of above $5,000. Algeria, Botswana, Gabon, Libya, Mauritius, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, and Tunisia. Mauritius, a small country in the Indian Ocean, is a good example of what a country can do right. It ranks as one of the freest places in the world econmically. It has a GDP per capita of 12,800, the highest on the continent. Yet instead of encouoraging the nations of Africa to imitate the success of nations like Mauritius, and Botswana and others which respect private property and protect it by law.
Capitalism works, no matter how much the left doesn't want to hear it. If you want an even better comparison we can leave Africa and go to Asia. Compare Taiwain and China. One with a population of 1.3 billion and one with a population of 22 million. Yet Capitalist Tawain is stronger econmically than China which is just emerging as a capitalist nation. Indias economy has grown by leaps and bounds since it scrapped socialism and began to privatize its economy.
We have those in this country that think the same way. CAFTA will soon be voted upon by the House of Represenatives where it will face a close vote. Free trade is never very popular with politicians, most of whom labor under the delusion that somewhere in the constitution congress has the ability to save jobs and the right to control the economy. As Deroy Murdock pointed out on nationalreview.com if we turn down CAFTA we turn away the nations of Central America, most of whom will then turn to Venezuela, and Cuba. It could also convince the world that we are going to pull the drawbridges up on fortress America, and revert to old prtotectionist policies. That would be a blow to the economy of the United States.
Adam Smith had it right in 1776, and I am a kind of guy who doesn't believe in fixing something that isn't broke. Capitalism works just fine, why try to force economic ineptitude on the world with foreign aid and protectionist policies?
