Posts tagged OECD
(Comparative) Fact of the Week: Foreign Aid
Did you know that the US gives is a foreign aid “miser” by international standards? Although the US gives more foreign aid than any other country ($30.2 billion) it gives less per capita and as a share of GNI (gross national income, a measure similar to GDP) than most peer nations.
In 1970, the OECD (an organization of advanced industrial democracies) agreed on a target of foreign aid spending of 0.70 percent of GDP. Only a few countries have reached that goal. These include The Netherlands (0.81%), Denmark (0.90%), Sweden (0.97%), Luxembourg (1.09%), and Norway (1.10%). In 2010, the US gave about 0.21 percent of GNI in foreign aid. That’s a little more than Greece (0.17%) and a little less than Portugal (0.29%). See link for more data.
If we measured foreign aid per capita (that is, divided up the $30.2 billion in US foreign aid by our country’s population), each US citizen contributed about $97 for foreign aid in 2010. The figures across much of the OECD are higher: Each Spaniard gave $126, each Briton gave $222, each Swede gave $483, each Dane gave $517, and each Norwegian gave $936. This map shows that data.
Ever wonder why the US has a hard time winning “hearts & minds” overseas? This is a big part of that reason. BTW, the entire “foreign affairs” spending makes up less than one percent of the US budget.
Why don’t we have these kind of debates in the US?
From guardian:
Berlin, Germany: A mother plays with her three-year-old daughter on a slide. Germany is debating the introduction of a nationwide home childcare subsidy Photograph: Adam Berry/Getty Images
(Comparative) Fact of the Week: Health Statistics
Last week’s (Comparative) Fact of the Week was about health care spending (at 16.2% of GDP, we’re the world’s highest health care spender). What do we get for all that?
Did you know that the US ranks 34th in infant mortality rate (just behind Cuba)? The US infant mortality rate of 7.07 means that 0.7% of all children born in the United States die before reaching their first birthday. For comparison, Sweden and Japan have infant mortality rates of 3.18 and 3.14, respectively.
Did you also know that the US ranks 38th in life expectancy (again, just behind Cuba)? Life expectancy in the US is 78.2 years. For comparison, citizens in Japan can expect to live 82.7 years; Swedes can expect to live 80.9 years.
So. Where does all that health care spending go? I’ll be interesting to see if our indicators (at least infant mortality) goes down in the next few years.
(Comparative) Fact of the Week: Healthcare Spending
I’m going to try to start a weekly “(Comparative) Fact of the Week” series. The first is about health care.
Did you know that the US is the global leader in health care spending? The US spent 16.2% of GDP on health care in 2009. The global average was 7.0% of GDP. Among advanced industrial democracies, the next five highest spenders were: Belgium (11.8%), France (11.7%), and Switzerland, Germany, and Portugal (11.3% each).
What did industrial democracies with single-payer universal health care spend?
- Portugal: 11.3%
- Denmark: 11.2%
- Canada: 10.9%
- Sweden: 9.9%
- Norway: 9.7%
- Spain: 9.7%
- Finland: 9.7%
- Japan: 8.3%
- Italy: 9.5%
- United Kingdom: 9.3%
- Slovenia: 9.1%
From planetmoney:
Immigration: Who The U.S. Lets In, And Why
Immigration policies around the world, compared, in one easy graph.
Via theatlantic:
It’s Official: Western Europeans Have More Cars Per Person Than Americans
Americans love cars. We pioneered their mass production, designed iconic autos from the Model T to the Deville to the Corvette, and are a major exporter as well as importer. It’s practically a part of the American national identity. But it turns out, according to a new paper from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on worldwide car usage, that American per capita car ownership rates are actually among the lowest in the developed world.
Read more. [Images: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace]
This is so counter-intuitive, it just blows my mind.
From theatlantic:
10 Ways to Visualize How Americans Spend Money on Health Care
1) U.S. Against the World: Spending vs. Life Expectancy
We spend much, much more per person than the rest of the world … but we don’t live much longer than some eastern European countries that spend much less than us. As a result, when you plot the United States against similarly advanced countries based on life expectancy and medical spending, we’re all alone on our little island.
Later in the semester, my POL 102 course will discuss health care policy around the world (I assign the excellent PBS Frontline documentary, “Sick Around the World”). They’re always amazed to learn that the US spends more per capita on health care than any other country—about twice the average. They’ve always assumed universal coverage would be more expensive, when all the evidence suggests that it would actually be cheaper.
The 23 Best Countries for Work-Life Balance (We Are Number 23) | The Atlantic
A comparative look at how well the various developed countries do, in terms of “work-life balance” indicators.
From newshour:
Bringing back this graphic from the archive after foreign aid spending came up in President Obama’s Google Hangout.
Polls consistently show Americans overestimate the percentage of the U.S. budget used for foreign assistance.
-TG
For what it’s worth, I’ve always wondered if we could calculate how much international good will we earn for every dollar we spend. We could then compare that to how much we lose for every dollar in military spending. My guess is that foreign aid is one of our greatest—even if smallest, under used, and under appreciated—foreign policy assets.
From ilovecharts:
Great interactive chart tries to parce apart this mess.
- Page 2 of 5
- Next »
- « Previous
