Op-Ed: A Global Tax Credit

This is one of those op-eds which drives me crazy. I am referring to the piece in today's NY Times Op-Ed Contributors: A Global Tax Credit by Justin Muzinich (works for a hedge fund in Connecticut)and Eric Werker (an assistant professor at Harvard Business School).

My views on this issue are summarized here:

1. We should end all foreign aid. To balance out the hard feelings, we should stop fighting undeclared wars (e.g., get out of Iraq) and bring our troops home from South Korea.

2. Foreign aid to sub-Saharan Africa only worsens the poverty and misery there. (See "A Farewell to Alms" by Gregory Clark.)

3. Use some of the saved money from foreign aid and foreign wars to help disadvantaged Americans. The recipients would include, but not be limited to, our poor and homeless citizens. The rest of the saved billions should be used in education and R&D for thermonuclear (fusion) power reactors.

The false premise of the op-ed is based on the notion that we can help sub-Saharan Africa by both direct aid and by economic development. This ignores the real problem: overpopulation in sub-Saharan Africa. Until that problem is addressed, no amount of aid will do anything but make the problem worse.

I am not an economist, but my educated guess is that this part of Africa has about 100 times too many people. The growth rate is the core of the problem. If the average number of children per adult female could be reduced to about 1, then over time the problem would go away.

To summarize, the problem in sub-Saharan Africa is overpopulation. Fix that problem, and the economic problems will disappear.