Keeping America Great

I was thinking about the United States the other day. I was thinking about how we are the most self-critical nation I know. It's a good thing, you know? I mean when in all of history did the "World's Super Power" encourage self-criticism?

Never.

So cheers to all you people who think we suck! Really! Bottoms up!!

I was listening to some NPR program discuss how we suck because of our relationship to the World Bank. I took a World Bank class once - one of the most intense classes I've ever been in. It was a graduate level history course at Western Michigan back before September 11th. There were about 25 people in the class, but only three of us were US citizens. That doesn't make me an expert, but I do get to have an opinion now!

The World Bank can be complicated issue. Here's a thumbnail sketch from my memory. There are two main types of loans offered by the WB today - the first kind of loan is for countries who need some help but are not completely destraught. If you'll allow me to use the term - the "2nd World" countries. These loans carry the going market rate of interest.

The second type of loan goes to countries who are extremly impoverished and the "interest rate" is something like .08% of one cent - like if I loaned you a dollar under these conditions, you would owe me .08 of penny when you paid it back.

The WB is set up so that contributing countries (those who give money to the WB) have decision making power based on the amount of contribution. The US, of course, is the largest contributor and has the most power, but not overwhelmingly. If Japan (who was the 2nd largest giver) were to make a pact with almost any other country, it could outvote the US.

Now in the history of the WB, there have been some dumb decisions. The two that come to mind are the following. In the beginning, the WB lent to countries ruled by greedy dictators who had no accountability. This is why Marco's wife had all those shoes. She was using - they were using - loan money from the WB (and probably also the IMF) to fund their highlife, not help their people. And of course, when the crap hit the fan, the country (ie - The Philapean Islands) had signed for the loan, not Marco, so the people were left holding the bag.

The emptly bag.

As most of these dictators just sailed away to a some island and lived off their fat bank accounts until they died.

Because that was dumb, the WB tried to do something smart, but was mostly dumb if only seen in hindsight. The began to attach their loans to projects. For example, the Aswan Dam, or various other projects. You can see their logic, can't you? No more loans to dictators, only to projects. Visable results, and we don't mean shoes.

But of course, because people are people, the WB wasn't always culturally sensative, and just went around assuming that everyone wanted a capitalist system (except the commies, and as you might remember, we were really in to helping little countries not become communist bastards.)

So, ok. Bad WB. And bad US for leading the WB that way. (Never mind that there was virtually no dissent among the other contributing countries.) Everyone yelled, and the WB stopped doing the project loans. And so here we are today - and still the good folks interviewed on NPR think the US sucks because it is the leading contributor and most powerful voter in the WB.

"We want equal votes, not votes based on contributions!"

Ok, so then let's have equal contributions too, yeah?

"Oh no! The US is obligated to contribute more than the rest of the world because it is the leading superpower!"

I'm sorry. I don't really follow the logic.

But hey...

Bottoms up! You keep America great!

posted by Headless-in-GR @ 11/23/2005 02:14:00 PM

 

Comments:

Verrrryyy Interesting. I'm learning! yay for learning!

# by:  spookyrach : 5:42 PM

 

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