Foreign aid grows the American economy

Since the recession hit, the U.S. has seen a drastic decline in the number of jobs available to its citizens. Those jobs that are left are ones that generally most people do not want.

For quite some time now, it has been misunderstood that, in order for the U.S. to give back to itself and restructure its systems and to grow, that we must be stingy with the money we spend on other nations.

Well, regardless, and sad to say, the U.S. has had and will always continue to have a foreign aid budget, as it has become a staple of the U.S. and what we stand for in assisting others in their times of need (like, several times they have for us.)

This includes the financial support of developing nations. However, it's commonly misunderstood how much the U.S. spends on foreign aid yearly. In fact, the foreign aid budget makes up less than one percent of the total annual budget.

Additionally, over the years, American consumerism has blinded the moral that we stand up and lend a hand. Yet, with increasing support of foreign aid and policy, it has been proven that there is a large investment to the U.S. in the money we give to these developing countries.

In fact, 43 of the top 50 consumer nations of our products were once recipients of USAID. Not only does stabilizing developing countries provide jobs in the US to make up for the demand of consumerism in growing countries, but it also helps drive the American economy, and thus, the American Dream.

In 1980, there were only 58 democratized nations. In 15 years, USAID and similar U.S. policies increased this number to 115 democratized countries. The U.S. provided aid to 36 of those additional 57 nations.

So if we look at things with this perspective, the idea is clear. When you give more, you get more.

And, in terms of what America has strived to stand for all these years, we can still make a positive impact in the lives of our citizens when we try to make an impact for those outside of our country as well.

Victoria Solis

Quincy