where is the money going?
in which i unleash my inner conspiracy theorist *or* when consolidation of wealth gets too huge to hide
the first republican presidential candidate debate was last night. i have no interest in dwelling on that shit show but i did notice something i wish i hadn’t.
when discussing foreign policy, several candidates are against providing financial aide to various countries overseas [noteably ukraine, israel and taiwan1. the reasoning behind such callous statements seems to be that if we spend money on other countries, we dont have enough for ourselves [“ourselves” being the american people]. which gave me pause because while we like to act like the saviours of the known world, america doesn’t actually do that much in regards to supporting foreign countries. not convinced i am telling the truth? let’s look at some numbers.
when looking at a simple overview america appears to be the leading supporter in the foreign financial aide category. in fact, compared to other countries, the united states of america spends ten billion more than the second leading country, germany2. but the numbers are misleading. a factor many americans forget to take in [or are intentionally left uneducated on] is GPD. GPD stands for Gross Domestic Product. Gross Domestic Product is “the monetary market value of all final goods and services made within a country during a specific period [reiteration as to why 2019 is the most recent year with the most accurate information]. GDP helps to provide a snapshot of a country’s economy and can be calculated using expenditures, production, or incomes.”3
GPD is the missing piece to the puzzle of foreign aide i have never been able to figure out until now. some things have never added up to me. how are we able to provide the “most” assistance to other countries while simultaneously outsourcing production, underpaying workers, raising the retirement age and undercutting benefits across every aspect of life for our own citizens? are we impoverishing ourselves to help other people? with the narrative of “country who provides the most financial aide” and out of context numbers to back such statements up, cutting funding overseas seems like a logical choice. taking care of everyone else while neglecting our own citizens is not sustainable, nor is it fair. so is that what is really happening?
nope.
there is a reason that i am learning about GPD on the internet at 30 years old instead of being taught about it in grade school; because controlling information consolidates and cements power. the more you know, the harder it is to control you, the more likely it is that you will make your own choices instead of the choices those in authority want you to make. it is the adult equivalent of giving your child “options” to choose from; in such cases children are not choosing what they want to wear or eat, they are picking their preference out of two choices an adult has already made for them. the fact we are forced into choosing between the lesser of two evils at such a young age explains why it is so hard to for us to ditch that way of thinking later in life.4 [*refrains from launching into a tangent on the behaviours we carry from childhood into adulthood and how there are systems in place that thrive on taking advantage of said learned behaviours and how the whole world would be better off if people stopped treating their children like possessions or like objects to be controlled.*]
back to GPD. “The world GDP is the added total of the gross national income [GNI] for every country in the world. Gross National Income takes a country’s GDP, adds the value of income from imports, and subtracts the value of money from exports. The value of gross national income, GNI, differs from that of GDP because it reflects the impact of domestic and international trade. When the GNIs of every country in the world are added together, the value of imports and exports are in balance. The world economy consists of 193 economies, with the United States being the largest.”5
GPD is the monetary market value of all final goods and services. it is solely concerned with what happens in a specific country - what we produce here, what jobs are based within our country, ect. Gross National Income [GNI] is GPD plus the information on the income of what is brought into our country from other countries, while subtracting the value of money of what leaves our country to go to other countries — any production or jobs that are outsourced, as well as any goods we sell.
the numbers being quoted to us when people talk about america being the “leaders” in foreign aide are the calculations from GNI; in terms of GNI, we are the largest economy in the world and we are giving the most money to other countries. however, the numbers from GPD tell a different story. “….when considering foreign aid as a percentage of total GDP ($21.43 trillion in 2019), the U.S. is one of the lowest spenders among all developed countries.”6
put simply, this means that compared to what the usa has in terms of money, we could afford to be giving much more than we are. there are countries who give “less” than we do, but when you look at their GPD and GNI, you will notice that what they are giving is significantly more because they don’t have as much to give; therefore even though their financial aid might be lower in numbers, it is significantly higher in good will because they cannot afford to help as much as we can. the largest economy in the world - the united states of america - is giving the bare minimum in regards to foreign aid, and now we have presidential candidates claiming we need to stop spending money on other countries and “take care of ourselves first”.
but we already know that other countries are doing more with less; more for their own citizens and more for foreign powers they choose to aid. how is it that the largest economy in the entire WORLD is struggling so much it must cut off the cost of the money we are spending on foreign aid, when that sum of money is the minimum amount we could be spending? now, that bare minimum is a large sum of money. but it begs the question; if we are providing the bare minimum of foreign aide in addition to underpaying our citizens, undercutting benefits, raising the retirement age so people have to work longer, allowing the increase of cost for health care to bring many households to their knees, denying the need for debt forgiveness of any kind for individuals in favour of tax cuts and debt forgiveness for large organizations, while claiming any steps to benefit the environment are “too expensive” or “not cost effective” or still yet that “climate change isn’t real”, in addition to the billion and one other examples of cost cutting where it should absolutely not be cut….where the hell is all the money going? we have the most! so where is it going?? and more importantly — why are regular citizens seeing none of it?
i think what is happening in hawai’i is a good indicator.
the fires that just ravaged the island of maui in hawai’i are being called the largest natural disaster in hawai’i’s state history. a timeline is difficult to establish since there were multiple fires occuring in various places, but a general timeline is it took a full week for all fires to be contained. [not put out - contained.] at the last estimate over a thousand poeple are still missing. the death count is rising every day as places cool down enough to be searched for bodies. it is horrible to witness secondhand through the media. i cannot imagine how much worse it is seen up close and in person.
the people of hawai’i have a long road of healing and rebuilding ahead of them. the amount of money available to each family from the federal government is nowhere near enough to cover the cost of rebuilding, let alone any physical or mental rehab that needs to take place. why would that sum of money be so low? on purpose. the official reasons are things like not allowing overlap in funding and how insurance is supposed to cover things and blah blah blah blah. i think every average american has had an encounter with an insurance company that refused to cover something based on a technicality. insurance companies don’t want to pay up. it’s that simple. payouts are money “lost”. so the federal government can’t give hawai’i-ans more $$$ because they don’t want to impede their ability to collect insurance. and insurance doesn’t want to pay so they have made the process unbelievably difficult with evaluations and only working with specific companies that can be hard to find or inconvenient to access and paperwork that takes a million years. [people who refuse to help other people “for their own good” are my least favourite type of people.]
so while the people of hawai’i are being left in a man made limbo that is not designed to help them but to wear them down, developers and investors are already approaching survivors and offering to buy their land. land is a hot commodity anywhere in the world, even more so in places like hawai’i where it is limited. survivors are still reeling from this tragedy, figuring out how much certain institutions don’t actually want to help and still looking for loved ones….and the greedy people who hoard wealth see this as the perfect time to take advantage of their desperation.
that is where i think the money is going. to buy land that can be developed for a profit. to make more money with the money they already have. for people who have no intention of sharing their wealth and every intention of hoarding it to become even wealthier. there is no doubt in my mind that whatever people are being offered for their land is too low of a number; i am also sure when they point that out, the people trying to buy the land have a plethora of excuses ready about how the recent fires caused a decrease in value or some bullshit. where else is the money going?
i don’t have specifics for that and any reasons i have mentioned previously in this post are pure speculation. i don’t have specific names of specific people who i believe are doing these things. but it makes so much sense, i had to share it. wealth is meant to be shared. hell, its not even supposed to exist.
author’s note: i am by no means a financial expert. i just found this interesting and wanted to share :) i’m sure there are mistakes or this is not easily understandable but i did my best.
it is worth noting that these are not the only three countries the usa provides with financial aide; however, these are the three that came up most frequently in last night’s debate.
keep in mind, most of these numbers come from 2019 as that is the most recent year we have complete data for. putting together an accurate and comprehensive overview of information with so many players and moving parts is no small task and the last 3 years have seen us short staffed and preoccupied with the corvid pandemic, right along with the rest of the known world. we have numbers from 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, of course, but 2019 is the most accurate in recent history and the most thoroughly verified.
source: GPD Ranked by Country 2023, but the information within brackets “[ ]” is my personal opinion/emphasis
this is a statement of a fact, not a judgement on how people choose to raise their children. defending yourself is not necessary. but who do you think the politicians learned this ploy from? and if it ain’t broke…..
source: same as footnote #3
source: US Foreign Aid by Country 2023