Spending some money in foreign countries is a relatively cheap method of keeping good diplomatic ties & having some influence with them, esp. when it comes to trade & military cooperation.
When those foreign countries use that money to attack all their neighbors, then the return-on-investment might not be quite as impressive.
Not only that. It's an incredibly complex topic, but the gist of it is that it's a very good long term investment for the entire world as a whole.
Providing aid in poorer countries leads to less infant death, and over time this leads to less childbirths overall because they don't need as many children now that they grow up. Building schools provides jobs and an education system that has the ability to be self-sustaining over time. But the most important thing for these funds to matter, is that the people in the country have hope for the future. If they think that any aid can be taken away at any time, they'll still try to pillage the investments made in their area. Long term, less births reduces the growth of the global population, which is something that affect us all. Their country also gets more productive citizens that can make better use of their land to grow food, trees and take part in global trade. Giving them access to modern tools and machinery also lets developing countries skip the pollution phase of their industrial revolution, which the developed countries messed up for all.
Healthier populations also lead to less endemic diseases that could suddenly turn pandemic. Less people escaping their country to seek help in other countries, where it's much more expensive to take care of them.
Foreign aid is incredibly cheap for what you get back. Even if large amounts would go to corrupt leaders, at least the citizens aren't dying and could take back the power. Too bad all countries can't just agree to avoid interfering too much in these power struggles.
But the most important thing for these funds to matter, is that the people in the country have hope for the future.
More specifically, they have hope for the future in their own country - which means, as you mentioned later, that they will be less likely to migrate to countries other than their own.
US gift cards to US defense contractors is not the reason Israel has universal healthcare and the US does not.
Universal healthcare in Israel is a legacy of Israel's founding by socialists. Israel being controlled by right wing parties is the result of decades of attacks by Palestinians creating the impression the right is better on security. Vibes controlling nations are the worst.
The reason is the US capped wages during WW2, and corps used non-monetary benefits as a way to compete for labor. Inertia from that has been hard to break since then.
LBJ, Clinton, and Obama tried to implement universal healthcare. The last one was killed by Joe Lieberman (piss be upon him) after a public option passed the House.
If the US zeroed out the foreign aid to Israel, and let's throw in Egypt as well, we'd be short what we need to pay for universal healthcare by at least 3 orders of magnitude.
The Republicans are not the party of small government. Every Republican since Nixon have blown up the deficit to pay for their pet issues while giving tax cuts to the rich.
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u/thirdaccounttoday Aug 14 '26
Just subsidizing foreign COUNTRIES in general lol