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Let's Hear It For America's Helping Hand! Curb The Criticism

theaustralian.news.com.au — The U.S. is often the 1st country to send millions of dollars, ships and cargo planes loaded with food & medical supplies. Transport planes, helicopters, floating hospitals to help those devastated by natural disasters. But even as we help, we are criticized for our other global actions. An Australian writer says, give America a break!

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  • niradg, on 05/13/2008, -7/+7US foreign aid vs other industrialized nations: http://salt.claretianpubs.org/stats/2005/01/sh0501 ...
    • Hillsfar, on 05/13/2008, -0/+4So what? We still give a lot and we have the ships and planes and hardware to deliver.
    • Troika37, on 05/14/2008, -0/+5FTA: "In 2003, the US provided $2.4 billion in humanitarian relief: 40per cent of all the relief aid given to the world. Never mind that development and emergency relief rose from $10 billion during the last year of Bill Clinton's administration to $24 billion under George W. Bush in 2003."

      Read up.
    • pitlord, on 05/14/2008, -1/+7This is a prime example of moronic libtards twisting statistical data and only presenting the figures in a way that supports their dishonest agenda. Those figures only represent money donated by federal government agencies and they don't take into account private donations from U.S. citizens and companies. Once ALL of the data is accounted for it is clear that the U.S. is FAR more generous to humanitarian causes than ANY OTHER COUNTRY on the planet.
      >.>
      Of course Sweden and Noway's govenrments contribute a larger portion of their GNP, those socialist governments TAKE over HALF of the income from their citizens as taxes.
      -_-
      In America, our government STEALS a much smaller portion of our income and we are FAR more generous to charitable organizations than the citizens of ANY European country and probably more generous than any other country in the world.
      (X^P
      So, not only does our government give more money to the world, they also devote more of our troops, ships, boats, helicopters, airplanes and trucks to international humanitarian aid than anyone else AND our citizens and businesses donate more of their own private money to these causes than any other country on the face of G-d's green earth.
      • Mohonri, on 05/14/2008, -0/+3What really hits me isn't so much the fact that the US contributes so much in humanitarian aid, it's that such a huge amount of it is *purely voluntary*. It's one thing for a country to tax it's people to death and spend a lot on aid. It's entirely another thing when the people, out of their own generosity, give so much.
    • flashingcurser, on 05/14/2008, -0/+4First of all the US has an insanely high gross domestic product so it doesn't surprise me that it might be lower in percentage than other nations. Second, did you notice who spent the most in dollars (not as a percentage of gnp)? Third, americans think very differently about the role of government and charity. Generally, we do not believe that it is the governments job to provide charity to other nations. Charity is an individuals responsibility, at that we excel.
  • motivatedmama, on 05/13/2008, -6/+2Now I understand that tax Obama is proposing that all the Republicans are up in arms about. "The "Global Poverty Act," which is sponsored by Obama, is up for a Senate vote today, and if passed would mandate the U.S. to spend 0.7 percent of the gross national product on foreign aid, on top of the money being sent out of the country already." It would seem that all "the money that is being sent out of the country already" ain't quite so much. Maybe President Obama has something here.
    In the micro I can attest that it's the middle class who donated the most at a local food drive last week. It seems those with the most gave the least. I guess that's why they had the nice houses on the lake, etc. Those in poverty are the ones who benefit but they still gave too. I would guess the farther you move from a certain situation, the less you can empathize. Apparently someone is lying about how charitable we are as a nation. Why and who? Who stands to gain?
  • StankInTheBank, on 05/14/2008, -3/+3There are very few things the USA is doing that I can get behind. This is one. woot.
    • keymanjim2, on 05/14/2008, -2/+6Don't bother. We don't need your support. Go back to hating America.
  • Troika37, on 05/14/2008, -0/+15FTA: "The need to paint Americans as a greedy, selfish, war-mongering superpower cannot be disturbed by facts. It matters not that, in the year before the tsunami, the US provided $2.4 billion in humanitarian relief: 40per cent of all the relief aid given to the world in 2003. Never mind that development and emergency relief rose from $10 billion during the last year of Bill Clinton's administration to $24 billion under George W. Bush in 2003. Or that, according to a German study, Americans contribute to charities nearly seven times as much a head as Germans do. Or that, adjusted for population, American philanthropy is more than two-thirds more than British giving."

    But don't worry, lefties. America still sucks.
  • BohicaTwentyTwo, on 05/14/2008, -1/+14This is why it irks me so much when people complain about how much of the federal budget is going to the defense department. They don't understand that the planes that bring war supplies to Iraq are the same planes that bring relief supplies to disaster areas.
  • Qong, on 05/15/2008, -0/+3That is a great article. I would like to shake that woman's hand; in fact, I'm going to email her right now.
    God bless America and its people, all of our allies and anyone else in the world that appreciates what America stands for.
    For those of you reading this that still want to bash our country, very likely your own country, reread the article. On the second reading, try using your brains, try to think for yourselves and realize that you have one of the best lives available to anyone in the world. Be happy with that, your country, and all of the people that have worked before you and are working now to make our country as great as it can be.
  • chessmasterjoe, on 05/15/2008, -1/+4The fact that our private donations are so high is something to be proud of but our government has no legal right to take money from me and give it to anyone else. I would be willing to bet that if we got rid of the income tax our private donations would be higher than our combined donations are now.
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