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216 Comments
- shutaro, on 04/27/2009, -2/+79Fact: Diamonds are hard to chew.
- TsuruchiBrian, on 04/27/2009, -15/+56Luxury items are not useless. Luxury items are a fitness indicator for their owners. All throughout the animal kingdom, females choose to mate with the males they have determined to have the best genes. The way they determine quality of genes is through fitness indicators. Fitness indicators are self imposed handicaps that are hard for males of inferior genes to fake. It is hard for a peacock with many harmful genetic mutations to produce a big and colorful plume, and to stay alive long enough with dragging around incredibly large "Eat me" sign to mate. A peacock has to be extremely genetically fit to carry around this gigantic and utterly useless plume of colorful feathers and evade capture by all potential predators until it mates.
For human males, one of our fitness indicators are spending vast amounts of money on useless ***** like diamond rings, Ferraris, multi-million dollar mansions, etc. Why? Precisely because genetically inferior males cannot afford to do it. If having simply a red car was a fitness indicator, then every male would own a red car, and owning a red car would suck as a fitness indicator because it doesn't indicate anything. All females who used this as a fitness indicator would be mating with genes selected randomly and would theoretically would not be selected to survive in the long term.
There are plenty of smart guys who are not rich. How many rich guys do you know that are not smart? But a lot of guys just get their money through inheritance and are actually nitwits. That's true, but the good genes of their grandparents who built the fortune in the first place are still trapped in those spoiled pricks spending their inheritance money.
And doesn't it work fabulously well? Is it just a coincidence that women are irresistibly drawn to wealth? Haven't these pricks in fact got it all figured out? You almost ALWAYS see a pretty girl in passenger seat of that Ferrari that cuts you off on the freeway.
Are these pricks or the skanks that date them truly happy? It doesn't matter. Their genes are perfectly "happy" even if their hosts are unhappy. As far as they are concerned the genes of the obnoxious self centered prick whose grandad was a railroad tycoon at the turn of the century found the genes of the ditzy supermodel with the pretty face and perfect body. Nothing else matters.
Evolution and natural/sexual selection are not politically correct. They are *****. But we are all the fruits of this process that has been going on for billions of years. It is the harshness of nature that has made it possible for humans to exist at all.
So the moral of the story is... Find the hottest person you can find, have a couple kids, cheat with some better looking people when you get a chance, and then die happy knowing your genes tried their best. - FlaG8r, on 04/27/2009, -6/+44I wonder how many luxury items the folks that created this own? Did they buy stereos or TVs or cars instead of donating that money to Africa? Did they buy tickets to sporting events or concerts instead of feeding the children? Surely the money they spend on high-speed Internet connections could have bought some rice instead?
- howclever, on 04/27/2009, -3/+30I like the presentation of the facts, but did we really need a naked, sexless, poorly drawn caricature of a hungry child?
- BlackJackJester, on 04/28/2009, -0/+26Many of the poorest places in the world don't have huge hunger problems. When a community earns $0, they as a community farm and live - like humans have for tens of thousands of years. The hunger problem exists within the fledgling urban centers, where no job = no food.
They don't need our money and food - they'll just go hungry again in a week. Endlessly giving and giving does not improve their quality of life, it merely sustains them in poverty forever. You want to help - spend a year there teaching. One year of teaching is more valuable than donating 10 million dollars to their future. - meangreenbean, on 04/27/2009, -4/+30Zero.
Africans maybe hungry, but i don't think even they could/would eat metal and gems. - Braxo, on 04/27/2009, -4/+29I came here to use your exact argument.
People shouldn't tell people how to spend their money. And who's to say Beyonce hasn't donated 5 million to charities? I'll even bet she's donated more. 5 million to her may be how I value 5 grand to me. I certainly haven't donated 5 grand to feed kids in Africa, and I'll be damned if somebody guilts me into doing so. - palehorse864, on 04/28/2009, -0/+17Let's also do one for the combined value of Diggers' computers.
- UrinalPooper, on 04/28/2009, -2/+14How many african kids do the mining jobs digging up otherwise worthless rocks feed?
(a: not as many as they could/should/would) - nepidae, on 04/28/2009, -3/+14"How Many Guns For African Warlords Could Celebrity Engagement Rings Buy?"
FTFY
Giving people money to sit on ass does not encourage them to work. - yocouchdigga, on 04/27/2009, -11/+22………………………………………………………………………………………………
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………………………………………………………’’~-‘’_ , , ,,’,_/--‘ - Braxo, on 04/27/2009, -1/+12Maybe your Christmas bonus should also go to feeding kids in Africa. God bless you if you already donate it, but I'm guessing you never have.
- Hu99, on 04/28/2009, -3/+13Ideology always falls apart when people are expected to make personal sacrifices.
- Ryuusen, on 04/28/2009, -0/+10That's an interesting way to justify greed.
- NUMBER4940, on 04/28/2009, -0/+9It's not so simple as to throw money at a cause. The government in much of those places is corrupt. What supplies get there are often intercepted and sold instead by the same people it intends to feed.
I'm just throwing this out there. Some people think it is simply a matter of sacrificing money. Of course, it is not. - HeDiggMe, on 04/27/2009, -1/+10Only 1 ring for Paris Hilton? She's been engaged like 3 or 4 times
- TsuruchiBrian, on 04/28/2009, -2/+11Beyonce earns about $80 million annually
The average American's earns about $32,140
$5 million to Beyonce is about $510 to you.
Have you donated at least $510 to charity in your life? If so you are as generous as Beyonce. - NoTiG, on 04/28/2009, -6/+14call me a pessimist.. but the more poor people you feed.. the more poor people that will survive... the more poor who that survived will replicate.. and end up being more poor people in a newer greater amount that will need even more charity...
In fact if all the rich people gave up their wealth... the world would not get richer... everyone would just get poorer because the population would grow and then they would be as poor as the rest. - ViperX116, on 04/28/2009, -1/+9Seriously? $5m for a ***** ring?
- pmctosh, on 04/27/2009, -2/+10And this is only a drop in the bucket to be sure. Maybe we could include bonuses from bank execs and oil company CEO's in the mix. That should pretty much take care of it.
- TBBucs, on 04/28/2009, -0/+6You can send an African kid to school for two years for the cost of an iPhone.
- immatellyouwhat, on 04/28/2009, -0/+6... congratulations, you get jokes.
- muleskinner, on 04/28/2009, -2/+8I'm sorry, but I can't rag on folks richer than me for buying things that they can afford. It doesn't make them bad people because they don't give away half their money to Somalian children and more than it makes me a bad person for not doing it either... How many kids could my car have fed?My house? My computer? My guitar? But I suppose I should move into a one room shack,ride a bike to work, and sell all my earthly possessions so I can do my part to support the needy african kiddies, who's with me?
- DeviantDragon, on 04/28/2009, -1/+6I get the bigger point that you're making but: "Precisely because genetically inferior males cannot afford to do it." That statement isn't true at all. Good genes and success are not linked especially if we evaluate genetic health risks. There are plenty of rich people in poor health that could likely have recessive or even dominant genes that make them poor mates when evaluated in terms of future life span or health of children. If we're looking at the ability to take care of a family, well, with mankind it's moved past simply being a genetic determination of strength or fortitude being sufficient.
- FishHammer, on 04/28/2009, -0/+5Celebrities only like causes that promote OTHER people to give their money.
- macslut, on 04/28/2009, -0/+5You're asking the wrong question.
The answer to the question is that it could potentially buy enough food to feed about the same number of kids directly as it does indirectly by having the money passed down the entire chain.
This works for most goods and services. It's better to pay for goods and services that support a healthy ecosystem rather than bypass the chain and feed a system that is hand-out dependent.
However, that being said, there's a problem with engagement rings in that they most often contain diamonds. Diamonds have an incredibly artificial price inflated into them and there isn't much money flowing throw the system to the workers or mine them.
Given the amount of war, terrorism, rape and torture that occurs because of the relatively recent use of diamonds as engagement rings (despite what DeBeers would have you believe), the better question may be, "How many African kids were killed for that celebrity engagement ring?"
And no, there's no such thing as conflict-free diamonds...except arguably for synthetic diamonds which with modern technology can be made to be better than real diamonds. - d00by, on 04/28/2009, -0/+5Answer to the first question:
If its Kate Moss, or any of the other models, not many.
If it was Michael Moore, however, we could feed quite a few for quite some time. - TempusEdax, on 04/28/2009, -0/+5Human development does not support this hypothesis. As communities reach the point where they no longer have to struggle for food, then people are allowed to specialize into careers like teaching, construction, etc. There will be a brief boom period, but eventually these places will reach a population equilibrium. You can follow the progression of Europe to see how eventually wealth and education will in fact DECREASE the overall population. This may take some time to do, but there's no reason to let people in the third world starve when the developed world could put them on the path to a more sustainable lifestyle by just giving up a fraction of their wealth.
- BlackJackJester, on 04/28/2009, -0/+5yes. No job = no money, and you can't grow your own food. You either have to rely on the charity of those with jobs, or starve.
In rural areas of Africa, no job is common, so you farm - not a huge deal. - halfmeout, on 04/28/2009, -2/+6i would rather know how many African children died getting their ridiculous blood diamonds.
- TsuruchiBrian, on 04/28/2009, -0/+4yes
- yocouchdigga, on 04/27/2009, -4/+89000<
- clip9, on 04/28/2009, -0/+4Diamond are close to worthless. They can be mass produced now. Why somebody would pay extra just because some poor soul has to dig for it in the ground is a real mystery to me.
- clyentnine, on 04/28/2009, -1/+5Opinion: Beyonce is worth every penny
- theskillwithin, on 04/27/2009, -1/+5How many african kids could feed on celebrity meat?
for gods sake, their marriages are bad enough, you want them to give up their rings? - JFitzpatrick, on 04/28/2009, -0/+4Yes, they do unfortunately.
I'll assume you've never been to Appalachia. - TsuruchiBrian, on 04/28/2009, -0/+4Donald Trump is extremely successful. He also likely has no trouble with women. From a genetic and evolutionary point of view he is doing very well. Whether he is "the ultimate" compared to EVERYONE else, is debatable.
There is a very high correlation between intelligence and wealth. Is it being elitist just to say that? Should we dismiss all things as false that we don't find appealing? Should truth be dependent on our moral sensibilities?
I clearly believe that evolution by natural/sexual selection is a real phenomenon.
What do YOU think a social Darwinist is?
I did not advocate letting poor people die in the streets. I did not advocate eugenics or genocide. Those would of course be artificial selection rather than natural or sexual selection.
All I did was explain one aspect of how I believe males and females choose each other as mates in our society. These are not even my ideas. They are very well accepted facts in the field of evolutionary biology and evolutionary psychology.
Even if you are an egalitarian socialist, that believes it is immoral for people to have differing amounts of wealth, that does not change the fact that women are attracted to wealth (among other things).
Do you think it is unfair that only good looking people get to mate with other good looking people? Perhaps we should have more equality in our society and randomly assign people to each other in the name of sexual egalitarianism.
Feel free to debate the veracity of my claims. I will not consider a mere accusation of them being "elitist garbage" as a legitimate criticism. - theanticrust1, on 04/28/2009, -7/+11A child starving is nature's way of selecting against the parent's genes. We can't all make it.
- protonone, on 04/28/2009, -3/+7I hate these types of articles. Stop trying to make people feel bad for being able to afford good things in life. Maybe if people who cannot afford to feed themselves stopped popping out babies, than you wouldn't have hungry children. Or instead of blowing the money given them, they used it to build renewable sources of agriculture, or maybe just a little infrastructure.
- macromorgan, on 04/28/2009, -1/+5The diamond industry cares about feeding the African youth! Who else is going to mine the diamonds in virtual servitude?
- toonworld, on 04/28/2009, -0/+4wait... you get a Xmas bonus? I don't get squat!
- diggydougie, on 04/28/2009, -0/+3The celebrities got their money in the first place from us throwing ours away on useless entertainment.
- inactive, on 04/28/2009, -0/+3The average celebrity could feed an African orphanage for a week, a fat one like Rosie O'Donnell - for up to three weeks.
- VitriolAndAngst, on 04/28/2009, -3/+6Social Darwinism at its best ladies and gentlemen.
You happened to be born in America -- good for you!
Aren't we better than just counting on the luck of the draw? Is this tough love or just hate? - TsuruchiBrian, on 04/28/2009, -0/+3@NUMBER4940
If humans are beyond these animalistic urges, why do we even have sex at all? We have invented artificial insemination.
Why do people cheat on each other?
Why is there an almost universal ideal of the beauty of physical symmetry and youth in human cultures across the globe?
Why do people care so much for the survival and success of their own children more than the children of complete strangers?
Why do we have the desire to procreate at all?
The reason why we do ALL these things is completely obvious when viewed with the lens of evolution by natural selection. The fact that we label some of these urges primitive and others as human nature is irrelevant to their veracity.
It's as natural for a man to try to spread his genes to as many women as possible as it is for a mother to want to breast feed her newborn children. One of those is just has a far more positive image in society. - mikemehak, on 04/28/2009, -1/+4If being a celebrity is so great and fulfilling that they can afford lavish rings, etc... then maybe the African children should become celebrities?
We all waste money relative to what we make.
Celebrity X spends money on a ring that could feed starving children
Bank CEO 1 spends money on a $150,000 car and a 1.5 million 500 square foot apt for banging his man lover that could feed starving children
I waste money on whatever that could feed starving children
A homeless guy wastes money on booze that could feed his starving self.
People make money and can do with it what they like. Some of them feel they should share the wealth and good for them. But if they don't, it's their choice. Who are we to judge? - immatellyouwhat, on 04/28/2009, -0/+3Fact: Bears can run faster up trees than they can on land.
- zaferk, on 04/28/2009, -0/+3@TsuruchiBrian
your math is wrong mate
its closer to $2000 - Brasky, on 04/28/2009, -4/+7***** you. Its their money and they can do with it what they want. What the hell is wrong with not WANTING to help Africa? What is so wrong with saying that? Their overall situation is unfortunate, but I won't feel bad for something I'm not responsible for.
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