When spending money is declared to be a good in itself, it is certain that much of it will be wasted. If that was not obvious already, it was proven by experiment when Gordon Brown announced 13 years ago that he wished to increase healthcare spending in Britain to the European average without much of a plan as to what he wanted to achieve with the money.
There followed years of plenty for NHS staff, whose pay packets bulged. Patients found it harder to discern an improvement. Indeed, Brown’s great NHS spending splurge coincided with the Mid Staffs scandal.
It should come as little surprise, then, that the same is happening in the charitable sector. The government’s target of pumping 0.7 per cent of our national income into international aid has enriched charities, but much of the money seems to be boosting the living standards of charity chiefs rather than those of the world’s poor.
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