Sunday, April 13, 2008

World Bank Proposes to Continue Food SHortages in Developing Countries

High food prices are causing unrest in developing countries. Naturally, the first thing people jump to is a call for more food aid. Never mind that most food aid ends up being stolen by the cleptocratic governments in charge of most "developing" countries (why put "developing" in scare quotes? There's no development going on, for the reasons to be soon stated). So more food aid will only result in the governments of the countries the food is sent to stealing it and selling it to the people at the same inflated prices. What these countries need are market reforms -- private property rights protections and independent court systems to eliminate corruption. Of course, if that happened, these countries would in fact turn into developing -- and then, developed -- countries. And if that happened, we wouldn't need such entities as the World Bank. And we certainly can't have that, now can we? That would result in the unemployment of a handful of clueless elites and the wasteful bureaucrats who work for them, and we certainly can't have that, now can we?

1 comment:

Todd Camplin said...

If there were no more developing countries, the World Bank would still find reasons to spend money. The WB doesn't need developing countries. However, their willingness to give to nations that continue to steal the food and money just make me angry. People should follow Bono's lead. Give to nations that show they are responsible. Then the other nations will make the reforms to also get the aid, or their government will fall. Hungry bellies tend to lead to revolution.