A starving little girl in Nigeria, taken by government worker

Libertarians believe we can do more for impoverished nations by not subjecting them to the same kind of welfare that our domestic programs provide along with showing them how they can provide and prosper with freedom from government intervention.

• America spends approximately $14 billion per year (conservative estimate) on foreign aid and over $400 billion since WWII. But there is little to no evidence supporting marked improvement of countries receiving aid. The U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) admits “Only a handful of countries that started receiving U.S. assistance in the 1950’s and 1960’s has ever graduated from dependent status.”
• Foreign aid has a record of waste and abuse indicative of our own central government. AID said in ’93 that “much of the investment financed by AID between 1960 and 1980 has disappeared without a trace.” Do you think non-profits might do a better job of accounting? Libertarians do.
• Even when the funds get to where they are supposed to go, the government makes stupid (lack of a better word) decisions on how to put the funds to use. Tennis courts in war-torn Rwanda, sewing-machines to areas without electricity, and putting hospitals where similar facilities are unused. Preying on Americans' compassion to expand the scope and reach of the Federal government seems to be an effective course of action to our elected officials.
• Exactly like how domestic welfare prevents Americans from becoming self-sufficient, foreign aid keeps entire nations dependent on the Fed’s spoon. Keep in mind that the money sent to foreign governments didn’t come from thin air, it came out of you and your neighbor’s paychecks at the threat of imprisonment for non-payment. I don’t know about you, but I could use the difference between my gross and net in my pocket to distribute to the organizations I choose, especially if the money the Fed takes isn’t going where they say it is.
• If Americans want to help other countries effectively, they can do so by improving the U.S. economy. American businesses would have funds to invest abroad and pursue free-trade policies. The Congressional Budget Office admitted in 2007 “Critics rightly argue that the broad policies of the major Western countries—trade policies, budget deficits, growth rates, and the like—generally exert greater [positive] influence on the economies of developing countries than does aid.”