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by Peter T. Bauer (Lord Bauer) (1915–2002)
Thursday, December 1, 1966
This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.
Foreign aid is clearly not a necessary condition of economic development. This fact is obvious from the history of the developed countries, all of which began poor and have invariably progressed without government-to-government aid. It is clear also from the history of many underdeveloped countries Hong Kong, Japan, Malaya which have advanced in recent decades without foreign aid.
Nor is foreign aid a sufficient condition of economic advance or even a generally effective force in its promotion. Indeed, its failure to advance living standards in poor countries after more than a decade of its operation is recognized in current discussions which emphasize the continued low living standards in the recipient countries and insist on the need for indefinite continuation of aid at present or higher leve