Developed Country Quotes
In this context, “rent" means payment is required for the use or right to use anything such as using land for a pipeline, for mining, prospecting for oil, the rights to fish for caviar sturgeon, erecting a building, obtaining an official document, etc. The Russian economic system and culture has created a striving for getting paid to grant rights as opposed to getting paid for making something, creating something, or performing a service for someone. In the breakup of the Soviet Union, some individuals obtained (by various means) the right to charge rent to others for much of the great trove of Russian land, waters and other natural resources. They became billionaires – oligarchs – and many are still paying off government officials to control those rights.
In many cases the American contractors hire locals in the recipient country and so a large part of the contractor’s funds actually go to the country. One virtue of this is that in many countries where the money is given to government or a local organization, there is a great deal of corruption and favoritism. Clinton is right that there is an additional cost where the American contractor takes a profit and an overhead, but very often this “waste” is far less than the waste produced by the recipient government itself or a local organization. The worst of both worlds exists when the American contractor succumbs to local pressures and government “suggestions” and does not buy from the low bidder or gives jobs to people who are not as competent as others or often not competent at all.
