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| User Info | Defense and foreign aid?; entered at 2011-05-17 11:53:49 | |||
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Jjfriedlander Posts: 5 Registered: 2010-06-10 
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If we end all foreign aid (which in its present form I favor so doing) then we need to grow up and realize a few things-- we are basically paying bribe money overseas. (An extended definition of foreign aid might include covert assistance to all those NGOS that pop up all over the place, like in the various color revolutions in Eastern Europe.) Basically slush funds to keep things pacified overseas-- but primarily ending up in the same comfortable subset of foreign (and domestic corporate!) pockets. If we do end all foreign aid we have to grow up and realize that getting our exact way overseas will be a lot harder than it is now. It means also that if one side wins a war we can't go disputing the results using bribes to all sides as leverage. It means having our diplomats kept in waiting rooms instead of being immediately seen in some cases. It probably will be that some level of residual and temporary bribe money (cheaper than actual military action) is needed to keep the 2 vital inputs to our economy going: Oil and rare elements imports. We should as rapidly as possible get to the stage of not needing even these (ie space solar power and thorium reactors, Fischer-Tropsch etc etc on the energy side, and diversification of supply on the rare element side ie, no you may not import 90% of all your rare earths from one country, or you will pay a special tarrif designed to make competing sources competitive) Our foreign affairs must be conducted so as to exclude sudden import supply shocks to our economy as it recovers under restored liberties. Otherwise the people conducting them are not doing their job. The average citizen has enough on his plate without having his elbow jogged by avoidable huge increases in prices for vital fuels and minerals. 2011-05-17 11:53:49
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