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Originally Posted by Jimi
It's also not a question of economy, but a question of humanity. Countries are starving. There is a lack of simple medication for children who are in desperate need. Disease plagues Africa, and South America, and Southeast Asia. Simple vaccines are in dire need, and we can easily supply our surplus.
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We have a surplus?
A surplus of what?
1. Certainly not money...the National Debt is currently around 7 and a half trillion dollars. Trillion. And considering that we're annually overspending about 400 billion more than we take in already, that number doesn't look like it's going to be smaller, come the end of this fiscal year.
We simply don't have cash to throw around for these people right now.
2. Certainly not medication and vaccines (many of which don't even "belong" to the U.S. anyway, but are rather purchased by us from manufacturers in Canada and the UK - see Item #1 for a good reason why we aren't buying up every pill and needle we can get our hands on anymore).
Case in point: name 5 people you know who got their flu shots this year.
3. Certainly not food. While crop yields in the United States have been steadily rising over the past half-century, and have really spiked in the last decade thanks to nifty shit like bioengeneered frankenveggies that can grow out of the side of a goddamn cliff if we need them to, the per capita yield - the amount of food we grow, as measured against the number of mouths we have to put it in - has actually declined, thanks in part to a horrendous harvest season last year .
It's edging up to approixmately a 1.5:1 ratio right now, not in favor of the food. We've got too many fat fucks eating too much, and the dirt can't churn out enough succor to keep them full, let alone to have any left for folks overseas.
Again, nothing to spare on that front.
So, in summary, while I really do wish every other country on the face of the Earth was doing absolutely great and no-one needed to worry about a thing, that just isn't the case...but the fact remains the we are not these peoples' keepers. Hell, many of them don't even
want our "assistance", and would prefer that we keep our noses out of their affairs, their cultures, their lives entirely (I refer you to a little place called Iraq, which you may have heard isn't terribly receptive to our well-intentioned [ha] advances).
Right now, the United States itself is in a potentially dire situation, and as selfish as it may sound, all of our resources need to first be allocated toward taking care of ourselves before we offer silver platters to other countires in the name of "foreign affairs", so that in another 10 years, when Ethiopia, Madagascar, or Cambodia come a-calling, asking for a helping hand, we'll actually be able to lend it.