Helping the World's Poor - Page 5

Jakesta · #41 05-29-2005, 06:17 PM

The IRS doesn't shoot you if you refuse to pay taxes. Be reasonable. These gunpoint arguments are ridiculous for that reason. While it is true that it's lllegal to not pay your taxes, don't tell me that the U.S. government employs violent means against tax protestors. They don't.

lastchance · #42 05-29-2005, 06:31 PM

Look, I really like M's argument, but get off your high horses and say things about it being unethical.

21% of the world's population lives on around $1 a day. You think that doesn't matter? You think that this is a problem that doesn't need to be solved?

Again, 21% of the world's population lives on $1 a day.

A homeless person in America has about as much wealth as someone in the middle class of a third-world country.

And, no, you think that's a problem of laziness? I have the utmost respect for Dynasty, but do you realize how hard it can be to get food living in a region devastated by AIDS?

And you don't think this benefits the US citizenry at all? This has enormous benefits. People would be incredibly grateful for advances such as these. Technology advances, trade, and production would at least double. This probably buys 20-30 years of gratefulness, and when you're looking at 21% of the world, that's worth a helluva lot, certainly worth more than $40 million.

And yeah, M's post is clearly the best in the thread, and the only dissent that makes sense.

Because, yeah, it is that hard to make $5-20 a day.

If that $40 million did solve the problem, that would be perhaps the most effecient and effective foreign aid ever made, and probably wins the war on terrorism right then and there like the Marshall Plan did in the Cold War.

sillyarms · #43 05-29-2005, 06:32 PM

[ QUOTE ]
don't tell me that the U.S. government employs violent means against tax protestors. They don't.

[/ QUOTE ]

I never ment to say they employ violent means I said:
[ QUOTE ]
Be it at gunpoint where the penalty is getting shot, or in a welfare system where the penalty is imprisonment.

[/ QUOTE ]

I can see how i did not make myself clear. In the gunpoint statement I ment to compare a "street" type robbery with the threat of imprisonment for not giving the government money. I in no way ment that the government employs acts of physical violence against tax dodgers. However, the threat of imprisonment is at least equal to the threat of violence in my eyes. I honestly do not know which i feel to be worse.

silly

lastchance · #44 05-29-2005, 06:33 PM

It is that hard to make $5-20 a day. Maybe you don't get that, but in a third world a country, it is that hard.

1/5 of the world's population subsists on $1 a day, and they're all working. Just had to make that point again, because it's very important.

We should all thank our lucky stars we were born in a first-world country. That is probably the single most important event in our lives.

sillyarms · #45 05-29-2005, 06:41 PM

[ QUOTE ]
21% of the world's population lives on around $1 a day. You think that doesn't matter? You think that this is a problem that doesn't need to be solved?

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree that these are problems that need to be solved. It is a sad thing. I do not agree that government should be the ones who attempt to solve them.

silly

lastchance · #46 05-29-2005, 07:00 PM

Obviously you want to start solving this problem in other ways. But companies and charities (well, those, but they suck at it) don't create infrastructure (sewer systems, roads, etc, imagine living without that stuff), governments do.

sam h · #47 05-29-2005, 07:00 PM

[ QUOTE ]

You're not going to solve the world's poverty and hunger problems by giving away money and food.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sure. But you are going to substantially alleviate them if you do it right. We are talking about millions of people here.

[ QUOTE ]
It's not that hard to get food. Millenia before our ancestors discovered fire, they managed to eat.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is very naive. Have you read about the issue of hunger at all or spent any time around poor people in developing countries? If you had, I don't think you would say things that are so misinformed (and frankly, callous).

lastchance · #48 05-29-2005, 07:02 PM

So, what about the logistics and real cost of the operation?

sam h · #49 05-29-2005, 07:05 PM

[ QUOTE ]
So, what about the logistics and real cost of the operation?

[/ QUOTE ]

What about them? Obviously these things are not just drawn up on a restaurant napkin , but I'm not sure what you're implying.

Jakesta · #50 05-29-2005, 07:12 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
don't tell me that the U.S. government employs violent means against tax protestors. They don't.

[/ QUOTE ]

I never ment to say they employ violent means I said:
[ QUOTE ]
Be it at gunpoint where the penalty is getting shot, or in a welfare system where the penalty is imprisonment.

[/ QUOTE ]

I can see how i did not make myself clear. In the gunpoint statement I ment to compare a "street" type robbery with the threat of imprisonment for not giving the government money. I in no way ment that the government employs acts of physical violence against tax dodgers. However, the threat of imprisonment is at least equal to the threat of violence in my eyes. I honestly do not know which i feel to be worse.

silly

[/ QUOTE ]

The government doesn't normally do that though. Usually they find some way to garnish your paycheck, since you(hypothetically) are violating the law. That's not violent.