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[PETITION] Stop Spending So Much on Foreign Aid

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Reply 60

SHallowvale

Original post by NickLCFC

Please sign the petition if you agree.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/125692

Where is this money going and why do you think it shouldn't go there?

Reply 61

username1969391

Original post by SHallowvale

Where is this money going and why do you think it shouldn't go there?

Read the statistics on 'international development' for 2015 here where about £11.5 billion was spent:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/482322/SID2015c.pdf

I think it should be reduced drastically as the money could and SHOULD be spent on our own nation.

Reply 62

username521617

Here's an idea: put that £12,000,000,000 towards the defense budget. Increase the number of jobs in the armed forces, and in turn increase the international relief efforts performed by the armed forces. You'd be creating jobs, helping those in need, and not throwing money away uselessly into the corrupt, bottomless pit that is the third world.

Reply 63

yorobun

Its a small proportion of GDP and most of the foreign aid that is given out does't help much in countries that have a corrupted system. I am not saying that UK doesn't help developing countries, we help tremendously but if the government can spend 80 million in building a university building where only students from one department can go, spending 2 million a year to help a developing country isn't much.
You could say that UK is helping more than one country but there are also many things that are being built, renovated etc that take much more money out of the budget than foreign aid.

Reply 64

Josb

Original post by TheMcSame

Or the government could crack down on the £34,000,000,000 tax gap and put more than twice as many people through university.

This is a theoretical sum, whilst the money given to foreign aid is not.

A 100% efficient tax system will never exist.

Reply 65

TheDefiniteArticle

Original post by Josb

This is a theoretical sum, whilst the money given to foreign aid is not.

A 100% efficient tax system will never exist.

It could, but people balk too much at authoritarianism.

Reply 66

viddy9

Original post by NickLCFC

Please sign the petition if you agree.

This is a bad idea.

People on this thread have cited poverty figures for the UK, but poverty in Britain is nothing like the absolute, extreme poverty that hundreds of millions experience elsewhere.

There's also no justification for putting the interests of British people above those of people far away, unless people are seriously willing to argue that the location in which one is born somehow makes one's suffering more important.

And, foreign aid, particularly in the domain of global health, is massively beneficial to those who are much worse off than anyone is in this country. There's also some indication that the government is targeting aid towards more effective causes, such as research into neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).

At best, foreign aid needs to be targeted towards the most cost-effective causes, just as our charitable donations need to be. But, claiming that the budget should be reduced is illogical; it should actually be increased.

As for the problems in this country, we could start by abandoning the unnecessary spending cuts that the government is making, clamping down on tax avoidance and evasion (instead of doing deals with Google), and increasing taxation on the wealthy (not necessarily through the traditional routes, but through Land Value Taxation, for instance). Let's address the economic system, which has caused living standards to grow incredibly slowly over the passed few decades. As Warren Buffett put it: class warfare is going on, and it's his class that are winning.

Reply 67

TheMcSame

Original post by Josb

This is a theoretical sum, whilst the money given to foreign aid is not.

A 100% efficient tax system will never exist.

It doesn't need to be 100% efficient. After all, it's 34 billion. Less than 50% of that is needed to match foreign aid.

Reply 68

999tigger

Just burst out laughing didnt realise, but the person is using the DM as credibility for its source. The shame of it. Thats not to say I dispute the figure, but using the DM is cringeworthy.

Reply 69

Josb

Original post by viddy9

There's also no justification for putting the interests of British people above those of people far away,

Seriously?

Foreign aid is British taxpayer's money. Try harder.

Reply 70

Josb

Original post by TheMcSame

It doesn't need to be 100% efficient. After all, it's 34 billion. Less than 50% of that is needed to match foreign aid.

How are you going to collect that money exactly?

Reply 71

Frank Underwood

Not signing, we should help other countries and set an example as a leading democratic nation.

Reply 72

TheTruthTeller

Fair enough stop foreign aid. But why is it that the same right-wingers that want to stop foreign aid want to intervene military in Syria and Iraq for example, creating more casualties which would need foreign aid?

Reply 73

viddy9

Original post by Josb

Seriously?

Foreign aid is British taxpayer's money. Try harder.

In many cases, we're willing to have our taxes spent on other British people even if it doesn't benefit us, and even things which have nothing to do with the British people (military adventures abroad).

In any case, when more than 16,000 children under five are dying every day of extreme poverty-related diseases, I don't really care "whose money" it is. Why should we want our tax money to go to people who are much better off than people who aren't?

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 74

TorpidPhil

Original post by Plagioclase

It's a very small proportion of our GDP and it's going towards generally good causes. If you want to have a review on who that money is going to then okay, but the budget itself shouldn't decrease. These recipients need it more than we do.

No it isn't going to good causes... it's a waste of money. If I spent 1million pounds saving the life of one person that's not a good cause.

And it doesn't help them, however, the purpose of foreign is mostly political leverage not actual altruistic aid.

Reply 75

TheMcSame

Original post by Josb

How are you going to collect that money exactly?

Since I don't work for HMRC, I have no plans on collecting that money.

Reply 76

username1969391

Original post by Frank Underwood

Not signing, we should help other countries and set an example as a leading democratic nation.

Do you think we should allocate some of the aid to ISIS?

Reply 77

Frank Underwood

Original post by NickLCFC

Do you think we should allocate some of the aid to ISIS?

We're already allocating aid to ISIS through the right-wing hatred in Europe towards immigrants and Muslims.

Reply 78

username1969391

Original post by Frank Underwood

We're already allocating aid to ISIS through the right-wing hatred in Europe towards immigrants and Muslims.

Hatred towards mass immigration* and Islam*. There's a big difference and it's not necessarily a right-wing trait either.

Reply 79

Frank Underwood

Original post by NickLCFC

Hatred towards mass immigration* and Islam*. There's a big difference and it's not necessarily a right-wing trait either.

Maybe you specifically want to elevate yourself to a higher level and claim that you're attacking a 1.5 millennia old religion which suggest that violence is justified against apostates (which is understandable given that religion used to be core to government and society back then) and not its followers, but there are dozens out there who are hating on Muslims and immigrants.

[PETITION] Stop Spending So Much on Foreign Aid

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