More on the “international community”

There are some great comments on Dr. Demarche’s contribution to the discussion. One—from Joerg”was particularly interesting. Here’s the part of his comment to which I responded:

How much does the US pay as a share of GDP per person for other international problems, like poverty, in comparision to Germany, Norway, Sweden, Netherlands and the UK? This will tell you who is acting like a responsible member of the international community and who isn’t?

Joerg is perptetuating a widely held misconception with this. Here was my response:

Joerg, your comment has a lot to chew on some of which I agree with and some with which I disagree violently.

In particular you appear to have a misconception about the nature of the society in the US. Nearly all Europeans and even many Americans do. In general Americans don’t equate “action” with “government action”. When a problem arises the typically American reaction is to organize to handle it not to expect the central government to take care of it. Neighborhood, city, county, and state governments are not departments of the central government.

When you add individual donations, corporate contributions, NGO donations, and donations from all of the various governmental entities in the United States (including the federal government), the US ranks right up there in generosity with the Scandinanvian countries you noted. Both the approach and the generosity are consistent with our national values.

The exception to this approach is the military. Our military is basically under federal control. And that’s why the most visible sign of US federal government participation in many “international community” activities is via the military—it’s what our federal government has to offer. I suppose to many in the EU (who expect their national governments or the EU to shoulder these responsibilities) that makes the United States appear militaristic but that’s just looking at the US through EU-colored glasses.

Note that this difference in values highlights the point I made in my own post.

Foreign service officer Consul-at-Arms has also posted his thoughts on the subject of the “international community”.