Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's an ebola outbreak right now, so there's that.

https://www.infectiousdiseaseadvisor.com/news/us-cancels-ebola-aid-in-uganda-despite-elon-musks-claims/

Also tuberculosis is picking up steam. And of course, measles.

Tuberculosis will be the most significant. We at least have an excellent vaccination for measles. Not the same for TB and it's an airborne disease. Treating it requires extensive, multiple months of multiple kinds of medications, and US has been one of the biggest funders of TB treatment world wide. I don't think other countries have the means to step up to replace the US treatment that was in effect.

No matter how tight the border, we will see TB cases increase in the US due to basic travel and tourism. It can be a particularly devastating disease for children.

I just saw on the news that US aid is shredding documents. I really don’t think they should do that.

It’s human nature to not care about where you spend other people’s money out of an anonymous slush fund.

Former USAID contractor here. USAID was a great organization that did great things. The fact that Musk called it a criminal organization is infuriating. Musk has never done anything for the wellbeing of another human. He can’t even produce a safe car. The vast majority of programs at USAID were worthwhile. The lack of USAID makes the world a less safe place. The Musk/Trump administration should be ashamed of destroying it. I hope in the future they pay the price for the lives they lost.

USAID was long viewed as mostly being good, but not great, aid for the developing world. It’s also long been known as a place that offers cover for deep state types. Like a lot of the operations of the U.S. government internationally, it wasn’t always clear that there was good alignment with the general public’s interests.

Anonymous wrote:

redquasar wrote:For those of you who work in some capacity either directly with US Aid or NGO receiving funding from US Aid... how much real good was happening and how much grift/waste ? So hard to triangulate to get the real facts and certainly cannot rely on Elon, Fox, NYT, or CNN for truth..

It depends on how you define waste.
If you view USAID as a charitable organization that is helping countries in need around the world, then maybe 95% of the spending is good. But if you think that America should get something in return for the money spent by USAID, then more than 50% is waste.
We are not getting much in return.
Can we really afford to keep spending that amount of money when we can't balance our budget and our national debt is 36 trillion?
The answer is NO.
It is good to give money to charity and help others. We all get it. But only when you can afford it.

A lot of the money seems to have been going to prevention of infectious diseases. We all benefit from stopping infectious diseases before they get to the US.

Anonymous wrote:There's an ebola outbreak right now, so there's that.

https://www.infectiousdiseaseadvisor.com/news/us-cancels-ebola-aid-in-uganda-despite-elon-musks-claims/

Also tuberculosis is picking up steam. And of course, measles.

There is a lot of good work being done.
Think of it like supporting refugees in refugee camps with food, water, and shelter.
Most of this people became refugees because of war with no fault of their own with a lot of international actors.
Think of the waste as being the middle management government or NGO officials who go around with their suv and high salary to distribute this essential services.

The moral dilemma is like helping an alcoholic and drag addicted person with children.
If you don’t help the kids will starve if you give him cash he might buy some drugs with it.
So you have to be creative buying food and water and giving it to the kids directly.

redquasar wrote:For those of you who work in some capacity either directly with US Aid or NGO receiving funding from US Aid... how much real good was happening and how much grift/waste ? So hard to triangulate to get the real facts and certainly cannot rely on Elon, Fox, NYT, or CNN for truth..

It depends on how you define waste.
If you view USAID as a charitable organization that is helping countries in need around the world, then maybe 95% of the spending is good. But if you think that America should get something in return for the money spent by USAID, then more than 50% is waste.
We are not getting much in return.
Can we really afford to keep spending that amount of money when we can't balance our budget and our national debt is 36 trillion?
The answer is NO.
It is good to give money to charity and help others. We all get it. But only when you can afford it.

There's an ebola outbreak right now, so there's that.

https://www.infectiousdiseaseadvisor.com/news/us-cancels-ebola-aid-in-uganda-despite-elon-musks-claims/

What do you think happens when you give $40 billion to 10,000 government workers and say "do some good in the world?"

Can't trust CNN but can trust an anonymous forum full of trolls.

It was 96% real good, 3% waste and 2% unknown*. Statistics don't lie. And these certainly were not made up. Hope that helps.

*numbers may not sum due to rounding

What’s the journalistic equivalent of a glowie?

For those of you who work in some capacity either directly with US Aid or NGO receiving funding from US Aid... how much real good was happening and how much grift/waste ? So hard to triangulate to get the real facts and certainly cannot rely on Elon, Fox, NYT, or CNN for truth..