Kenyan economics expert James Shikwati says aid to Africa does more harm than good:
Huge bureaucracies are financed (with the aid money), corruption and
complacency are promoted, Africans are taught to be beggars and not to
be independent. In addition, development aid weakens the local markets
everywhere and dampens the spirit of entrepreneurship that we so
desperately need. As absurd as it may sound: Development aid is one of
the reasons for Africa’s problems. If the West were to cancel these
payments, normal Africans wouldn’t even notice. Only the functionaries
would be hard hit. Which is why they maintain that the world would stop
turning without this development aid.
Replace “Africa” with “inner cities,” “aid” with “welfare,” and “functionaries” with “bureaucrats” and this sounds very familiar.
