Many of the people we like in the blogosphere seem to be quite impressed with Geldof and his ideas for Africa: John Hinderaker, Ed Morrissey, Charles Johnson, Smash, etc. We, on the other hand, think that Live8 is more of the same — dopey feel-goodism.

Exhibits A and B for us are India and China, and you can add a number of other Asian economies as well. China is the best example, or better put, the example we know the most about. Take a look at the last couple of month’s posts on China, like this one, and you’ll get the idea. China has been growing at astounding, unheard-of rate of 9% a year for 20 years — no Marshall Plan, no debt relief — just from the unleashing of capitalism. China moreover has doubled its GDP per capita in the last six or seven years: that’s how you get people out of grinding poverty. And it is no secret how they have done it.

One of Captain Ed’s correspondents, Burbank Ernie, had this excellent comment:

Call me an Idiot, but it is time to quit throwing money (TAX MONEY) away to despots. I stole this tidbit from an excellent article from the scotsman:

“There is an instant solution in Africa’s own hands. The nations of sub-Saharan Africa do very little trading with each other. Why not form an African Common Market, raise a universal tariff wall to outsiders, but cut tariffs rapidly between the African states themselves – very much as Europe did? Next, rather than abolish African debts, why not turn them over to the African equivalent of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (owned by the African Union) to use the interest to fund that Marshall Plan? And by creating a common and interdependent African economy, we begin the process of eliminating the tribal frictions that underpin Africa’s recurrent civil wars. Finally, creating a strong, single African currency, issued by an independent currency board and pegged to the euro, would let individual African countries such as Malawi start to escape their difficulties in raising foreign exchange. The IMF could then lend the currency board the necessary reserves, free in the knowledge the money would not end up in Zurich.”

Quit the Liberal Lie that throwing Money (TAX DOLLARS) at problems will solve it, it never has and never will. Not one dime…

In another article, the Scotsman had additional worthy comments:

For every dollar lent to Africa in recent decades, 80 cents has disappeared into the secret accounts of dictators and their allies. That is why the US is concerned to see a commitment, not just to free trade and economic reform but to openness and transparency in the dealings of African governments. These are reasonable points, and those who think that ending poverty is simply about bullying the US and the other G8 countries into handing over more money need to address this question of means in more detail than is currently evident.

Over the past 50 years rich countries have poured, on average, $100 billion a decade into Africa alone, with precious little to show for this largesse. Ditto the World Bank, which handed out more than $260 billion between 1980 and 2003 across the globe. Often, the more aid a country got, the worse it did. Between 1980 and 2002, 39 recipients of World Bank money experienced negative annual growth per capita, and 17 experienced growth of between zero and 1 per cent a year. The bank’s record in sub-Saharan Africa is particularly lamentable: among half its recipients, per capita incomes fell. What the poorest countries need to make them prosperous is good governance: the rule of law, respect for property rights, less than rampant corruption and sensible macro economics. Gesture politics will just not fix it.

The two excerpts from the Scotsman raise for us the following points: (1) there has been plenty of aid, and it has gone down a rathole; (2) the idea of an African Common Market seems very interesting and sound: so why can’t a continent with several dozen countries and 885 million people figure that out for themselves, rather than having a Scottish newspaperman raise it? And how did a country of 1.4 billion — twenty years ago as poor as Africa — raise itself up without massive World Bank loans and foreign aid? The answer is that China chose to permit and cultivate capitalism (and its supporting institutions) on the one hand, and that Africa continues to be ruled by kleptocracies on the other other hand. Until there are serious political solutions first in place, we agree with the Scotsman that “gesture politics will just not fix it.”

UPDATE

Anthony Daniels has related commentary in the Telegraph. Kim du Toit has a cold, hard piece from three years ago that you ought to look at too.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 6th, 2005 at 1:48 pm and is filed under business, General, Left of Left, New Media, War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.