Foreign aid has made recipient countries poorer rather than stable.

Evidence

Obviously, the larger the population the less help per capita it will receive, and the truth of the matter is that after two decades of massive help programs all the countries that had not been able to help themselves to begin with—like Japan—are poorer, further away from either economic or political stability than ever. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 31

Categorization

• QUESTION: Arendt’s claim about aid failure is dated and contested; worth checking against modern development economics.
• XREF: connects to: Bauer held that foreign aid cannot promote growth and persists mainly from Western guilt — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1769; Conditional aid can leverage policy reform in poor countries — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1776; Bauer contended aid mainly enriches the wealthy in poor countries — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1828 (+1 more)