The issue of foreign aid goes to the heart of how nations should cooperate together, and whether this should be on a ‘quota’ system or more ‘as needed.’ In this often heated debate, the opposing arguments can perhaps be summarised as follows. Proponents of the quota system claim that wealthier nations have a moral duty to sacrifice some of their income to help poorer countries, and that this duty does not rise or fall depending on circumstances. This argument is often used to justify the quota arrangement for former imperial states such as Holland, France or Britain. Moreover, the argument go, the fixed proportion system allows the receiving countries to plan and budget reliably, building the foreign aid into their economic calculations. However, opponents of the fixed donation system respond that this budgetary aspect is in fact the most damaging aspect of the idea. They point out that, if aid money is provided regardless of whether it is actually needed, the funds become...