The headline of Nicholas Kristof's New York Times column on what's happening to USAID crystallizes the issue in his view: "The World's Richest Men Take On the World's Poorest Children." Elon Musk has been gloating about gutting the US Agency for International Aid Development, which Kristof finds particularly "callous" given that "Musk probably has a net worth greater than that of the poorest billion people on Earth."
- "Just since Donald Trump's election, Musk's personal net worth has grown by far more than the entire annual budget of USAID, which in any case accounts for less than 1% of the federal budget."
Kristof writes that both Musk and President Trump have been making wildly inaccurate claims about the agency, which delivers medicine and food to the planet's poorest and helps curb the outbreak of pandemics, among other initiatives. Yes, it could use restructuring, but what's happening now is a "demolition—a blow to our values and interests alike." Kristof quotes John F. Kennedy as warning that cutting such aid "would be disastrous and, in the long run, more expensive." JFK added that "our own security would be endangered and our prosperity imperiled," which Kristof refers to in his conclusion:
- "To billionaires in the White House, it may seem like a game. But to anyone with a heart, it's about children's lives and our own security, and what's unfolding is sickening." (Read the full column.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
