Ranking the Rich

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What is a nation’s fair share of aid or fighting poverty? The Center for Global Development (CGD) <<>> has developed a scorecard to rank nations’ contributions to poor and developing countries. The CGD publishes its ranking every year, and in 2009 CGD ranks the US 17th out of 22. The rank is base on various metrics and is normalized by national GDP and per capita GDP. Scandinavian countries all rank toward the top of the list. Sweden is 1st for example. If the Aid component of the index is examined, Sweden has a high score of 14.3 by contributing $4.2 B in aid. On the other hand, the US contributed $22.5 B in aid, but only scored 2.3. The population is a factor in this difference, i.e. $4 B on 10 million people seems like a much great contribution than $22.5 B on 300 million people. The argument is that the US should be spending more, maybe $120 B per year to keep up with the Scandinavians. Is this fair – is this the right way to look at the issue? Or, could it be that the
Scandinavian per capita income is just too high and they should be contributing more on a per capita?


References:
Commitment to Development Index 2009
<< http://www.cgdev.org/section/initiatives/_active/cdi/>>

Per Capita Foreign Aid Assistance by World's Wealthiest Countries, 2002
<< http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0930884.html>>

Ranking the Rich 2004 - By FOREIGN POLICY, Center for Global Development
<< http://www.foreignpolicy.com/issue_mayjun_2004/cgddetail.php>>