(and to Straha and the rest of that bunch. No, they weren´t better of as a German/British colony)
Yes they were 
There's a book that came out this spring called White Man's Burden by William Easterly (formerly of the World Bank). Its all about how foreign aid to the Third World is a big waste of time and money. I haven't finished it yet so I don't know if he advocates modern imperialism or not (I hope he does).
Funny that an american like you are so fond of imperialism. Would you prefer to be ruled by the British?
When it comes to modern days, you make one big mistake. There is no way that British, Dutch, French and Italian taxpayers would help fund a presence in Africa/Asia. The colonies beside from a few, never were that great a business and the few countries that hung on to larger parts of there, like Denmark and France has used large amount of money on their oversea possesions.
