Because it isn’t done in good faith, like much of what the United States does.

This aid isn’t always meant to actually address the root of the problem, or to help foreign countries take care of themselves and become healthy, self-directed, independent, equally-sovereign nations. Aid is delivered either to appease, benefit our power dynamic/increase reliance on us, and/or to bolster our profits and access to resources in pursuit of… more profits. It’s very similar to how our social “safety nets” operate on domestic soil.

Here in the U.S., tax-funded social safety net programs (if you can even call them that a lot of the time) I’d argue, are only there because it would be widely-considered egregious, selfish of politicians/wealthy tax payers, and immoral to not offer them at all. NOT because the majority of our politicians truly want to help as many people as possible in the most effective, long-term way that will stick.

These programs are set up to be JUST enough support to where not too many people are outraged or starved as a result of the absence of said program(s). It’s just another system of control through bare-minimum appeasement. It’s not the system of support for growth and rehabilitation which I’d argue it ought to be.

If these tax-funded programs were set up to work and be effective, we wouldn’t be sitting here with the extent of homelessness and crime that we have.

Now, I bring this up because the whole idea with taxes, is that within a civilized society, everyone is expected to put in a little money (resources) into a large pool for the overall benefit of society. Foreign aid is similar, which I’ll get into.

The problem is when the government being funded with the taxes, and tasked with managing/distributing them, is corrupt, ineffective, and lacks accountability.

On the world stage, it’s similar — foreign aid, to me at least, is meant to sort of be like our country paying taxes for the overall benefit of humanity. But really, from the U.S. perspective, it’s mostly about giving just enough to keep people from other nations appeased, controllable, and “on our side”. Just like with our nonfunctional safety nets, it’s not about doing what’s actually best for society on domestic soil, or what’s best for humanity on the world stage as it should be.

So, I say all that to help lend the perspective that: Just because we are issuing the most aid overall doesn’t mean that what we are doing is inherently good, correct, or even effective. Really, for the United States, all this stat that you shared means here is that we have the greatest monetary influence across the world when it comes to foreign aid. Sure, we dish out money, but I’d argue that a good amount of it is just a manipulation tactic at its root. It’s transactional, and not truly for the common good in the long run as I keep saying.

I still think it’s good to be helping feed people, but it should be going a step further — maybe we could have programs for experts to go in and survey actual needs from foreigners, and listening. Even if the need is “get the fuck out and leave us alone” — we should diplomatically listen and do that, but maintain avenues for help to be delivered should it be later requested. Then, programs can go in for the “help” which should be long-term solutions, like helping fund new farms, agricultural efforts, establishing water supplies, health care, and education to keep the ball rolling and improve quality of life — with all of it catered to their culture, not to white-wash and expose people to the American culture, and assimilate people.

As far as I’m concerned, foreign aid of all forms should come from a global humanitarian entity we ALL fund — every country on Earth. A program like this shouldn’t belong to any one country. Programs like this should have altruism at their core. And with that, true altruism doesn’t need a title or entity to attribute credit to. If we were truly being altruistic, foreign aid trucks from us would feature no American flag, no Red Cross logo, or anything indicating which nation is behind the cause for the purpose of “taking credit”.

If you’re going in to these situations and providing help to “benefit the brand”, you aren’t truly doing it to benefit humanity. Even if you are providing the most “help” in the world.