How Western Aid Keeps Africans Poor

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A young Senegalese man had the drive, savings, and plan to open a small store. He never did.

The moment he opened, cousins, uncles, and neighbors would demand goods for free because they were in need. Family obligation would force him to say yes until the shelves were empty and the business dead.

So he never started. Or he moved far away from his family to start his business with all the hardships that brings. (RELATED: Europeans Discover Simple Luxury As They Descend On US For World Cup)

That story repeats itself across the continent in a thousand variations. It is not a story about African potential, which is enormous. It is a story about the environment surrounding that potential and how it systematically crushes it.

Traditional obligation networks crush initiative from below. Kleptocratic governments extract what survives from above. For seventy years, Western aid has subsidized both.

The math is simple and damning. When the World Bank, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), or the International Monetary Fund routes billions to governments that cannot enforce contracts or protect private property, they are not building prosperity; they are subsidizing the very institutions that prevent it.

Governments that would otherwise face fiscal pressure to reform instead receive a reliable stream of outside money that removes that pressure entirely. The aid buys them........

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