Helping the World's Poor

[RR12]

I AM NOT AGAINST HELPING THE POOR COUNTRIES THAT HELP THEMSELVES. BUT WE SEEM TO HAVE A PROBLEM IN THIS COUNTRY ABOUT CONSTANTLY THROWING MONEY AT SITUATIONS AND NOT BEING ABLE TO CONTROL HOW AND WHERE IT IS BEING USED. LOOK AT THE TSUNAMI AID, NO DOUBT I FEEL WE NEED TO HELP, BUT THERE IS NO CONTROL OVER WHERE THE MONEY GOES AND HOW IT IS BEING SPENT. RED TAPE SLOWS EVERYTHING DOWN. YET WHEN THE UNITED STATES STEPS IN AN SAYS WE WILL HELP AS LONG AS WERE IN CONTROL, WE ARE TREATED AS IF WE ARE PLAYING WORLD KING AND LOOKED DOWN AT. HOW WELL DID THE MONEY SENT TO NORTH KOREA DURING THE CLINTON YEARS ADVANCE THE POOR AND HEALTH IN THAT COUNTRY? SEEMS LIKE WE GAVE MORE MONEY TO A DICTATOR.

[The once and future king]

[ QUOTE ]
How hard is it? How much money does this effectively cost? Not a question directed at you, but at anyone who has posted and supported this idea.

[/ QUOTE ]

To double the amount of aid to the third world would cost the eauivalnet of half a stick of gum per capita for the G8. (about 12p each per annum or 24c).

[jcx]

[ QUOTE ]
"In 1998, the United Nations Deelopment Porgram estimated that it would cost an additional $9 billion (above current expenditures) to provide clean water and sanitation for everyone on earth. It would cost an addition $12 billion, they said, to covered reproductive health services for all women world wide. Another $13 billion would be enough not only to give every pperson on earth enough food to eat but also basical health care. An additional $6 billion could provide basic education for all... Combined they add up to $40 billion." - John Robbins, author of Diet For a New America and Food Revolution.

Kind of interesting huh? How much did congress just approve for the Iraq war, $80 billion?

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow! This sounds great! We can end hunger, provide clean water for all, educate the masses and throw in health care for the bargain price of $40 billion? As a citizen of the 1st world, let me be the first to say, "Where would you like the check sent?"

Of course, upon receipt of the $40 billion in full all 3rd world nations and bleeding heart patsies forever lose all right to bitch about those greedy folk in the developed world. I mean, $40 billion will solve all the world's problems, right?

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Those aren't questions designed to provoke honest discussion. They're asked in a manner to attack the person you're asking the question to.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know Dynasty. I'm not the biggest fan of foreign aid either but he does have a valid point.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yo Dynasty. Where is your rebuttal? Are you really going to just ignore him like that?


BTW, here is a nice quote

[ QUOTE ]
Hunger and malnutrition killed 10 million people a year, 25,000 a day - one life extinguished every five seconds.

The world does produce enough to feed everyone. But the food is often in the wrong place, or unaffordable, or can't be stored long enough. So making sure everyone has enough to eat is more about politics than science.

[/ QUOTE ]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4038205.stm

[wacki]

Seriously, I'm not trying to draw you into a pissing contest, but I think Bruiser has a valid point. As I said before, I'm not the biggest fan of foreign aid either but I'm having trouble comming up with a counterpoint to bruisers post.

[MMMMMM]

So do you think people would suffer less if a government wasn't able to limit monopolies? If education wasn't publicly funded? I'm glad you realize the importance of protecting the people in one aspect.

I'm not sure about monopolies, and I don't think education should be federally funded. That doesn't mean I would object to education being locally funded or funded by individual states. One advantage of funding by individual states would be the choice it would offer citizens (in picking their state of preferred residence).

Another Adam Smith follower believing in the invisible hand of capitalism who has never actually read any of his books?

I don't give two hoots about Adam Smith, really. What's yours is yours and what's mine is mine and that's the fairest and best way. You earn it, it's yours--NOT mine. You create it, it's yours, not mine--you build it, it's yours, not mine. Pretty damn simple really.

Where do you think government is too large? Should I be able to sell my house in the middle of the city as a landfill area?

That's a local matter not a federal matter--I hope.

It seems the only place your theories are being put into practice is small African nations, and we know how well that's going. At least Socialists have some very successful countries to point to.

The U.S. didn't rise from a rural backwater to become the most advanced, powerful and prosperous country in the world through socialism.

[lastchance]

Besides the counterpoint one of logistics and corruption, right? This is probably the only effective counterpoint, but it's certainly very effective.

[ripdog]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm not about let you draw me into some kind of pissing contest about this.

[/ QUOTE ]

This exchange reminds me of my idiot bigot of a step-dad. I remember him asking (facietiously) why all of the starving people in the world had fat bellies. I was 9 or 10 and didn't know the answer at the time, so I wasn't aware of how offensive his statement was. When deprived of nutrition, the human body uses up any available muscle. So it turns out that those bulging stomachs are bulging because their guts are pushing directly agianst their skin. This is pretty sad.

[lastchance]

Living on a less than $1 a day is not something you can make fun of or take lightly. (And you can make fun of a lot of stuff)

[Il_Mostro]

[ QUOTE ]
Besides the counterpoint one of logistics and corruption, right? This is probably the only effective counterpoint, but it's certainly very effective.


[/ QUOTE ]
That's a counterpoint to
[ QUOTE ]
You're not going to solve the world's poverty and hunger problems by giving away money and food. The money will be quickly spent and the problem will still exist the next day.

[/ QUOTE ]
And an important one.
But not really to
[ QUOTE ]
It's not that hard to get food. Millenia before our ancestors discovered fire, they managed to eat.

[/ QUOTE ]
Which is what, at least I, and I belive bruiser too, had so much problem with. And still do, I still think that statement is very very ignorant.