My question for the day....

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by Letum

With the US's wealth it should be a matter of coals to Newcastle.

With our current disgraceful national disaster response capability, I would gratefully accept any and all help.

National pride be damned, there are people who need help. That "should" be important to the federal/state/and local governments.

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by Tchocky

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4216370.stm

I know it happened way back when with Katrina, but that's the only time I can recall in recent history! Something happens to any European country, no matter how small, and the US has got Europe's back in a heartbeat.

I just see it not being a two way street very much anymore. We haven't changed. Europe has I think.

-S

[Letum]

Originally Posted by SUBMAN1

I know it happened way back when with Katrina, but that's the only time I can recall in recent history! Something happens to any European country, no matter how small, and the US has got Europe's back in a heartbeat.

I just see it not being a two way street very much anymore. We haven't changed. Europe has I think.

-S

If such opinions and attitudes are the norm in the US then you can all stuff your aid
should any disaster befall me.

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by Letum

If such opinions and attitudes are the norm in the US then you can all stuff your aid
should any disaster befall me.

Fine by my me since you don't acknowledge it.

Typical racists attitude, just applied to aid here.

-S

[clive bradbury]

So strange, Subman. You launch one post, which I notice is now closed, boasting about US wealth in relation to Europe, then start this one whinging about why you don't get foreign aid? Have you ever considered that the international community, just like most other societies, tends to to distribute wealth downwards, i.e. from those who need it least to those who need it the most. Make your mind up.

[mrbeast]

Originally Posted by SUBMAN1

Fine by my me since you don't acknowledge it.

Typical racists attitude, just applied to aid here.

-S

What on earth are you talking about about Subman?

[Morts]

Originally Posted by clive bradbury

So strange, Subman. You launch one post, which I notice is now closed, boasting about US wealth in relation to Europe, then start this one whinging about why you don't get foreign aid? Have you ever considered that the international community, just like most other societies, tends to to distribute wealth downwards, i.e. from those who need it least to those who need it the most. Make your mind up.

[UnderseaLcpl]

Originally Posted by clive bradbury

Have you ever considered that the international community, just like most other societies, tends to to distribute wealth downwards, i.e. from those who need it least to those who need it the most. Make your mind up.

They do? I was under the impression that every society that has ever existed has been moaning about how the few and the wealthy lord over their poorer bretheren since the dawn of mankind.

The international community, and the governments that comprise it, do distribute wealth. That much is true. But in doing so, and in virtually all other aspects of their nature, they destroy wealth for all but themselves.

Governments do not make money, they take money.

The nations of the world that have the highest standards of living are the ones that are, economically, the most free (with the exception of nations that are floating on oil and the U.S. since 1930 because of other advantages. Which I would like to expound upon, but won't, for the sake of brevity)

So really, foreign aid doesn't actually help. It just transfers the burden of national crisis. It isn't an immediate transfer, but the harmful effects of inflation and public debt are killers of nations. Then the lenders become the borrowers, and the cycle continues. The only ones laughing all the way to the bank are the people that control the governments.

In cases like almost the entire continent of Africa, the results of foreign aid are even worse. People starve, die of disease, and kill each other, despite hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of international(government) aid. Most of that money never gets to the people, and there isn't one Head of State in the world that has ever starved to death.

So, in the case of Hurricane Ike or Katrina or whatever, I would reject foreign aid to the U.S. unless it was through private charity. I would rather see the economies of your nations benefit from lesser government debt and investment in the private sector. That way, you can help us prop-up our economy when it fails by providing private foreign investment, and we can do the same for you when your governments fail financially.

Don't trade the fiscal elite for the political elite, as humanity has often done in the past. The results are always the same.

The U.S. would be better served by abstaining from any form of governmental disaster relief, and rejecting any foreign-state aid. Private charity will invest more efficiently in disaster recovery, and the costs are borne only by those who choose to invest, unlike state intervention, where we all pay, whether we can afford it or not.

To have the money to assist in disaster-relief a society must have wealth. To do that, it must have economic freedom. That means not letting the government appropriate and redistribute wealth as the politically elite see fit.

[GlobalExplorer]

Originally Posted by SUBMAN1

Looking at all the devastation from this hurricane, where is our foreign aid? Something bad happens anywhere in this world, we are quick to respond, but when it happens to us, what then?

-S

If the foreign aid after Katrina is anything to go by, theres is going to be a lot of help:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interna...ricane_Katrina

Just a couple of days ago it was in the news that Germany wants to send the THW with specialists and cars again, and I am sure there is a lot of help from other countries, too.

More unverified quotes from Wikipedia but still interesting:

"An article in the April 29, 2007 Washington Post claimed that of the $854 million offered by foreign countries, whom the article dubs "allies," to the US Government, only $40 million of the funds had been spent "for disaster victims or reconstruction" as of the date of publication (less than 5%).[42]
Additionally, a large portion of the $854 million in aid offered went uncollected, including over $400 million in oil (almost 50%).[43]
The report "Transforming the Aid Environment" argues that the "way in which the United States perceives foreign aid is perhaps best understood in the way in which the country acts when they are the recipient nation. When other countries offered the United States $854 million in cash and oil as foreign aid to help the areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina, they merely accepted 4.7% of the total aid offered, the rest went uncollected. There is no reason for not accepting the available resources, other than that aid is a political tool. The United States wanted to avoid the political influence aid has on the policies of the recipient nation.

The policicy actually makes kind of sense to me. If I were the US I would certainly not want to create the impression the country of Absurdistan could bribe me with a meagre 500.000 $.

[SUBMAN1]

Katrina is one time in all of this. And though this country may be rich, it isn't unlimited in its capability. The offer of help is the part of the equation that is missing from outsiders here. All take and no give. One way street. Some of the posts above prove this without a doubt.

You foreigners can spin it any way you want, but it shows how you feel about us. You simply do not care unless it might possibly hurt your own interests. No other way to spin that now is there? Eat it since there is no argument there.

-S

[GlobalExplorer]

As you are obviously not interested in facts, play with yourself then. I only took you off the ignore list because you post interesting stuff outside the GF.

[Morts]

Originally Posted by GlobalExplorer

As you are obviously not interested in facts, play with yourself then.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Platapus

With our current disgraceful national disaster response capability, I would gratefully accept any and all help.

National pride be damned, there are people who need help. That "should" be important to the federal/state/and local governments.

Agreed....always help a friend in need, if your able to

Reminds me of FDR in the early years of WWII.

There should be no barriers put up to stifle compassion or humanitarian assistance.