41 Comments

1. 

   @galaxycoder

   January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

   Charity begins at home. While we have people sleeping on the streets because they are homeless and people depending on food banks just to survive. The UK should scrap ALL Foreign Aid.

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2. 

   @mishapurser4439

   January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

   The strongest argument in favour is that richer countries often only got that way by exploiting smaller countries' resources and labour through exploitative postcolonial neoliberal trade and investment deals. So in reality foreign aid is not rich countries giving away money out of the goodness of their hearts, but simply giving back a portion of what was taken from third world countries through immoral means. But then foreign aid can be just another means of exploitation by giving it on the condition that the countries accept those exploitative neoliberal policies against the interests of the people.
   So much for the first world being a force for freedom and democracy lol

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3. 

   @bloodfiredrake7259

   January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

   6:00 As a Pakistani I would like if Britain gave us less aid. It is better in the long run.

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4. 

   @stevenlodge4295

   January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

   I don't get help people don't understand how mental money is if aliens came down and said why can't you fix that problem and we said we can't afford they would say what you pay yourself are you stupid

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5. 

   @LeKrosis

   January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

   Hello! Fan from Denmark here. I have some suggestions for future videos:

   I suggest the focus becomes more general than focused on the UK, because a lot of fans are from around the world as well; drawing examples from the UK is fine, but a focus could be more international.

   I also suggest that you break down the demographic of the voters, because it is definitely possible for there to be tendency. A lot of young participants from the UK might vote differently than a middle-aged fan from the US.

   Love the videos, I appreciate the work! Keep it up.

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6. 

   @solosunbeam

   January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

   4:47 Jack, I'm sorry but smaller countries are not necessarily poorer countries. In fact some of the wealthiest nations in the world are small countries.

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7. 

   @ifxthenwhy6202

   January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

   I'm not someone who is usually against foreign aid but some of those comments you showed in the video make some very good points. Like India, a country that has the 2nd biggest population on the planet, has a space and nuclear program yet they wont fix their poverty problem. I can guarantee much of the foreign aid (or the majority that goes to the local government anyway) simply lines the pockets of the corrupt rich people that caused all the problems in the first place.

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8. 

   @xthor86

   January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

   Foreign aid is fine. If it has a time and money limit. Continual aid to the same countries for forever, is NOT a good thing.

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9. 

   @huzayfah

   January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

   Yemenis are under siege in Yemen, not in Saudi Arabia
   Just correcting a pedantic factual inaccuracy

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10. 

    @patrikszabo7966

    January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

    Looking at how the top list of foreign aid recipients correlates with the top list of where refugees are coming from, two things are very clear. One is that developed countries had better spend more on foreign aid in their own interests because it could help avoid another refugee crisis. The other is that the way all that foreign aid is spent is terribly ineffective and requires some scrutiny.

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11. 

    @okwrite7120

    January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

    The UK has a moral obligation to mind its own business. Slavery and Colonisation were sold as something humanitarian. All aid does is benefit wealthy countries and hold poorer countries back.

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12. 

    @JoelFeila

    January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

    a classic version of this I see brought up in america is this.
    We send lots of clothes over to poor countries
    these clothes are cheaper then domestic ones
    So no one over makes a clothing factory.

    My response is "Why don't we build the factory for them and teach them how to run it?
    Answer is at best n one want to spent the money if they don;t get anything out of it.

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13. 

    @KingSyilver

    January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

    Absolutely great video

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14. 

    @KingSyilver

    January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

    Great video

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15. 

    @stevespain6445

    January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

    Did I miss the bit where it is explained how foreign aid is used to siphon money back into donor countries' businesses, and how donor countries often use their experts over local ones? Some argue that the recipient countries don't have the expertise required, and as far as is my experience in the South Pacific, this is untrue. So say a donor country gives x million to improve roads – great idea, roads improve access for farmers and other industries in getting their goods to market. However, the contract will be awarded to a company from the donor country meaning a substantial amount of that money will go back to the donor country, and that company will use experts from the donor country at 'expat rates' rather than local rates. Locals will be used for things like manual labour, but rather than being paid at the expat rate like the executives, they will be paid at the much lower local rate. Furthermore, even when recipient countries introduce laws which require contractors to train up locals to take over the position it is questionable as to how much this actually happens. Another example is food production. The donor country will donate y amount to the country to move from manual intensive farming to mechanised farming, again this has a number of merits to it, except in the way it is executed. The donor country will require the recipient country buy the machinery from companies in the donor country, even though there may be a local option which is as effective and much cheaper (as well as helping stimulate local industry). This rather than aiding the country puts a further burden upon them. This can be then further exacerbated when the donor country requires farmers grow crops desired by the donor country, reducing the production of crops for local production. There are many other examples of this. There was a book published a long time ago called "How the other half dies" by Susan George which is still relevant today, and has been reprinted a number of times. It's available for free if anyone is interested in the problems specifically about food supply in impoverished countries. For me the discussion about the percentage of foreign aid in a budget and aid dependency miss the greater points briefly expressed herein.

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16. 

    @petersebok9284

    January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

    English people are the most vicious, greedy and mean people of the world. It's time for the British Empire to collapse

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17. 

    @viklondon3466

    January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

    for China, its 'Foreign Aid'
    but totally altruistic foreign aid for uk.

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18. 

    @danielmclaughlin5573

    January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

    Wait. Trump is going to cut foreign aid, but Johnson's figure gets used?!

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19. 

    @davidpierce2690

    January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

    Yes!

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20. 

    @lennyrobinson7321

    January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

    For me charity starts at home But also it all depends which religions you give it to and what country Don't for get some will bit the hand that feeds them which has been proven time and again

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21. 

    @jbullionaire2749

    January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

    I prefer lemon aid…

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22. 

    @Tboneuk1691

    January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

    How can a a conservative government hell bent on austerity and making the lives of many vulnerable and worse off UK citizens miserable, spend so much on foreign aid?

    £14Bn could help fund the NHS, homelessness, welfare and disability cuts, public services to name but a few.

    Sort out the UK first and if there’s a surplus, then of course help those in other countries who are less fortunate.

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23. 

    @ashamanjake6626

    January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

    Liked. I enjoyed this video, please do more. How do you go about responding to a survey request please?

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24. 

    @tonyb9735

    January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

    Should We Spend Less on Foreign Aid?
    No. We should spend more. We are a rich nation, we need to not be greedy and to help those less fortunate than ourselves.
    That should not deflect from the problem that our wealth is unfairly distributed. There is more than enough money, the problem is that it is in the hands of too few, too selfish people. That's what we need to address. I'm not talking socialism of anything but there are too many people struggling while the wealthy have more than they could ever spend.

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25. 

    @6Man666666

    January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

    Absolutely we should spend less money on foreign aid. There is no responsibility to less wealthier nations. It harms recepients from developing independently. And the wealth produced in a country should stay with its constituency.

    Even if it helped there is no reason to give wealth away. If a country cannot be governed by the its own wealth it means it isn’t governed correctly or helped by keeping the country underdeveloped while they spend it on their own military when they should be reaching out to make alliances with countries next door.

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26. 

    @xylusirl1527

    January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

    We spent several thousand of foreign aid on an Ethiopian pop music band with a YouTube that has less than 5,000 subs.
    Every year we start spending stupid sums on things that aren't needed because departments try to hit the 7% no matter what.

    I'm all for aid going to projects that will help. But the arbitrary figure and wastefulness is a problem. Especially when some of that money goes to India still. A country that is no longer listed as requiring aid. We have been told to give away x amount of money and every year we throw whatever we have left away just to hit 7 %

    Why not say that whatever isnt spent at the end of the financial year carries over or is donated to UK charities or something that makes it genuinely useful. Maybe it could go into a foreign disaster relief fund. I don't know I just can't see how some of the spending improves the lives of the poorest in third world countries, or makes the planet safer or cleaner. We probably spend 4 or 5% wisely and the rest is waste.

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27. 

    @brandonlink6568

    January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

    The line I always see is 'Why are we spending money feeding children in Africa when there are starving children here in the US?' The answer is because we chose not to help our own starving children and if all foreign aid stopped tomorrow that money would go to defense contractors or another tax cut for Jeff Bezos and not to the homeless starving American children.

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28. 

    @FriedEgg101

    January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

    It's a tricky one. The soft influence is important. But if you liken relationships between countries to relationships between people; you might buy your friends drinks, ice creams, birthday presents, whatever, but you wouldn't indefinitely subsidise their food, or fuel. You might help them out financially if they got into trouble, but probably not if that was a regular thing.

    It seems like some people really want Pakistan to keep its head above water. But I imagine some would be worried about what might happen if aid was withdrawn and China took over completely, or there was a humanitarian disaster and fingers of blame were pointed. What a mess.

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29. 

    @aaronbhai

    January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

    Any country rich enough to have their own nuclear arsenal, space program and state of the art fighter jets needs to penalized 0.7 % of their military budget !!

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30. 

    @StreetSoulLover

    January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

    lol@thinking that foregn aid is spent on impoving the lives of people all over the world.
    Basically it's given to dictators in crap holes (like shitholeistan who attack british troops in Af-craphole-istan)
    Pakistan is not our ally!

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31. 

    @haloharry97

    January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

    ? I thought I seen this before, is this video re-uploaded

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32. 

    @leojames7331

    January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

    Pakistan shouldn't receive any aid from the uk whilst it maintains a nuclear deterrent and supports terrorism at a state level. Yemeni don't need our aid, they need us to stop selling weapons to the Saudi's. Aside from this, yes keep giving, but let's not pretend there is a moral sentiment. We give to receive. It's so frustrating to see people complaining that the money should be spent on homelessness in the uk etc. We have the money to do that but as the UN declared in their report on poverty in the UK, austerity is a political choice. On top of the UN mandating what percentage of GDP we spend on foreign aid it should mandate the level of spending that countries like Pakistan apportion to their own social inequities, that way the reliance argument would fall apart.

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33. 

    @stephenodey5147

    January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

    Excellent 😀

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34. 

    @johnyv473

    January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

    I'd like to mention a concept that was not talked about here in detail. I believe there is some truth in the idea that the UK could see itself as even more responsible than other entities to provide foreign aid, due to the legacy of the British Empire. Albeit it seldom discussed in the UK, a great many geopolitical conflicts in the 'developing' world are direct results of the mishandling and poor governance of imperialist Britain. Although often viewed as taking place long ago, in the context of history these events are remarkably recent. Therefore, the argument to help a country such as say, Pakistan, may just gain some additional credence. Thanks for the video tldr!

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35. 

    @issavirgo4838

    January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

    Despise the free lunch

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36. 

    @elliotwatson3754

    January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

    Famine is affected by a natural disaster

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37. 

    @TyrooShino

    January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

    Half the people leaching off the NHS shouldn't have it, most illnesses are the persons own fault. Proper nutrition and the strict elimination of sugar and crappy foods, would make the NHS effective and smooth.
    We owe the money to developing countries because we legitimately screwed em with loans they couldn't pay back. We also fucked their countries up with historical events, they'd be fine otherwise.
    Foreign aid is something you do because it's what's right, you sometimes have to do what you dont like because guess what, people need help.

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38. 

    @Gamenetreviews

    January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

    Boris Johnson cartoon as Trump lol

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39. 

    @rbinsurance4654

    January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

    Foreign aid often comes back in the form of political donations and wind up in a dictators bank account. In the case of China, we give them money and they buy treasury bonds and collect interest.

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40. 

    @567secret

    January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

    2:10 That's the Boris Johnson figure. And also you should be saying "naught point one two percent" instead of "naught point twelve percent".

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41. 

    @Drachnon

    January 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

    What stats did you use? Because wikipedia's stats for 2016 has the UK listed as spending only 0.67% of GNI

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