My new gig

Well, in just a few days I will (barring any major problem) be swearing in as a Peace Corps Volunteer for the TEFL program in Peace Corps Costa Rica. I’ve already expressed my disagreement with the term Volunteer, but I don’t think it’s going anywhere, so I’ll just have to bite my tongue lots these next two years. Like everything in life, you all (the readers collectively) have varied knowledge about this separate national program (it’s not part of the Department of State). So, in order to strive for some intellectual parity, I’m going to write a bitsy bit about the program. It was started in 1961 by then President Kennedy. There are a few (probably apocryphal) stories about what gave him the motivation to start the program, but according to the official documents:

“The mission of the Peace Corps is to promote world peace and friendship by:

-Helping people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and

women

-Helping promote better understanding of Americans on the part of peoples served

-Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans”

Whether you choose to understand “world peace and friendship” as exporting American liberal democratic principals to counteract Soviet communism is to be done under your own volition. Nonetheless, here it is on the eve of its 50^th anniversary doing, in my opinion, pretty much exactly what its goals say. Essentially, Peace Corps, instead of looking to provide bags of wheat to hungry villages, tries to send a skilled American to that village to teach them how to grow wheat. It takes the ancient Chinese proverb about fishing to heart. I’m very happy with the sustainable development aid model that the Peace Corps follows, because sending bags of wheat ad infinitum to poor countries is good for the Kansas wheat farmer, but pretty inefficient for everyone else.

It is my understanding that any country can solicit volunteers, and although I’d imagine that Peace Corps would cordially rebuff a request from Luxembourg or Singapore. But it is the host countries that really decide if they’ll have volunteers, and have some impact over the number and type of volunteers they’ll receive. Likewise, they have input on what the volunteers will do. Peace Corps of course analyzes the safety of the country, and this also limits the countries in which it serves. There are currently over 8,500 volunteers serving in 77 countries across the world. Even with this input from the host country, Peace Corps ultimately decides how volunteers act, where they’ll live, and what they’ll do. In fact, “because that’s what Washington says” is often a response given by my bosses or trainers to certain pointed questions. In order to avoid seeming sketchy in the future, I will proffer a few rules from the Peace Corps Handbook. First, if I seem a bit less frank than usual Ken it is because “Volunteers should remain culturally sensitive with respect to the material they post to any Web site” and “Volunteer-posted material on the Web should not embarrass or reflect poorly on the Peace Corps or the countries where Volunteers serve.” In the same vein, “[a]s a safety precaution, Volunteers must not include on their Web sites information about their precise living location or those of other Volunteers.” Sorry if it means my blog will be G-rated, but I’m not looking to get fired.

Now, with the economy and government spending being a central topic in our nation’s most recent elections, and sovereign debt fury spreading across the globe (well Europe really), I thought I would offer some food for thought as I am now a recipient of your tax dollars. The Peace Corps, except for its small management staff in DC, is pretty much spending all its money overseas. To many people this may be very unpopular and even treasonous, because, ‘American dollars should stay in America’. Without delving into the subject of how effective soft power versus hard power dollars are, the returns which development aid may or not pay, the cost of soft power versus hard power (regardless of efficacy), and other issues which I am happy to discuss with anyone and also am trying to learn about, I’d like to offer some more basic thoughts.

I wholeheartedly agree that managing the national debt is very important, as being burdened by debt both hinders our ability to act as a nation and our ability to manage our finances. The debt spiral might not be impossible to get out of, but when countries default, it’s not much fun for anyone. Let’s also not forget that other than the American people, America’s next largest creditor also possesses the world’s second largest army. In other words, I don’t really want to be Greek or Irish right now. So, let’s quit frivolously throwing money at these foreigners is what most Americans say. Here’s the problem: cutting all foreign aid saves America less than a penny for every dollar spent. The tax receipt (link) and a poll by the Economist display both of these facts. People want to cut spending (62%) and not raise taxes (5%), so, unless someone is proposing less bombs, planes, and soldiers or checks to old people, then he is not actually suggesting a viable solution to the national debt problem. So, from the bottom of my heart, let’s focus on the real costs and leave foreign aid alone, because I’m really enjoying my job so far.



As an addendum to this post I will include some information about the cheddar that Peace Corps spends from your hard earned tax dollars. Overall, in the Fiscal Year 2010 budget, the Peace Corps' total cost is $373 million. This amounts to about $43,000 per volunteer in the field. Of course, we're not getting paid anywhere near that, as their is both the (probably highly bureaucratic) staff at headquarters in DC, and support staff in every country. Costa Rica's 2010 budget was $1.737 million for the ~150 volunteers here. In specifics, that money can be broken down into $700,000 for operations, $425,000 for the volunteer food, rent, and living stipends, and $200,000 for medical (includes the costs and the medical staff salaries. There are more items, but those are the big ones. For a more accurate perspective, the $425,000 divided by the roughly 150 volunteers amounts to our living costs being about $2,800 a year. So, I may be in Costa Rica, but paying $75 to rent kayaks or go rafting for a day is a cost that I can barely shoulder once a year.