Extremely Sad But True - American People vs. Rebuilding Haiti

[DisneyBamaFan]

No, the world isn't asking YOU to rebuild the country. The world is asking you to help out with a portion of the costs. Believe it or not, other countries are making significant contributions to Haiti relief. Canada alone has donated 135 million to Haiti.

Canada has always been one of the more charitable countries. There will be a few countries that will still be assisting Haiti this time next year - a very few. Canada will be among them. The US will also be among them.

Canadians are used to their government spending their money for them. Americans are not. Americans are used to handling this kind of support through private donations.

There is nothing as wasteful as a government relief effort...

 

[wvjules]

Where are "we" getting the $150m to donate? I thought we were broke. Don't we owe China a gazillion dollars now?

Wait, scratch that...China donated 150 million. It just has our "name" on it.

IMO, if we can afford to donate hundreds of millions to other countries, I never want to hear "we can't afford that" from our government when it comes to domestic programs ever again.

 

[Andy B]

The U.S. has 5 times the population of the U.K. so these things would look out of whack anyway.

Country Pledge Population Per/Pop
U.S. 100,000,000 308,549,000 0.32
Canada 50,000,000 33,979,000 1.47
UK 10,000,000 60,776,238 0.16
Australia 9,300,000 20,434,176 0.455

These are the government pledges from the AP on the 19th (I used these amounts because I couldn't find the 150 million that another poster mentioned, but you get the idea).

So Australia donated alot even though they have been dealing with devastating, massive fires. Canada's donation is larger since our governor general is from Haiti, so this hit close to home for alot of Canadians. And the U.S. is right in the middle.

Actually the UK government has pledged £20m thats $32m approx, and charitable donations were at £42m ($67) on the 22nd Jan.

 

[OceanAnnie]

Where are "we" getting the $150m to donate? I thought we were broke. Don't we owe China a gazillion dollars now?

Wait, scratch that...China donated 150 million. It just has our "name" on it.

IMO, if we can afford to donate hundreds of millions to other countries, I never want to hear "we can't afford that" from our government when it comes to domestic programs ever again.

We're hearing that over and over again right now across the nation. How many states are millions of dollars short for programs across the nation? Almost every headline I read about the states, mentions shortfalls, lost jobs, and economic doom and gloom. I don't begrudge giving, but it should be responsible giving (not talking individuals, most individuals look at the bottom line of what they have to give). What is wrong with responsible giving? What happened to our economy being in the toilet?

 

[BCDisneyFanatic]

Canada has always been one of the more charitable countries. There will be a few countries that will still be assisting Haiti this time next year - a very few. Canada will be among them. The US will also be among them.

Canadians are used to their government spending their money for them. Americans are not. Americans are used to handling this kind of support through private donations.

There is nothing as wasteful as a government relief effort...

Yes, both Canada and the US have been blessed with lots of natural resources, as well as the drive and ability to capitalize on them. As a result, we (as well as the other first-world nations) have historically considered it our duty to help out nations that have not been as fortunate as ourselves. The US has certainly done a lot of good around the world over the years, and I don't mean to belittle it at all.

You make a good point on government spending. As a Canadian, I consider it our national duty to help out other nations in need, whereas Americans seem to prefer personal control over where their contributions are sent rather than national gestures.

 

[DancingBear]

I'm happy to hear that there is such support here on the DIS for the U.S. government taking on the things Anderson Cooper talked about:

foreclosure relief
affordable housing
medical insurance for all children
prescription drug benefits for all
rebuilding of New Orleans
taxing bank bonuses

 

[MrsPete]

In all honestly, Americans don't like to help each other (long term). We will help each other in a pinch (9/11 or Katrina) but beyond that...not really.

I'm in favor of that attitude. Americans have opportunities that these Hatians never had: Americans have access to public school, higher education, and job opportunities. An able-bodied, motivated American might need help to get through a crisis, but he should then be able to stand on his own two feet. Two quotes to that point:

Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day; teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime.

You cannot help men permanantly by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves. (Abraham Lincoln)

 

[wvjules]

Personally I think the federal government should stay out of most, if not all, of it.

 

[charming23]

Hollywood has.

Farm Aid.
Katrina Aid. God bless you Brad Pitt.
Audrey Hepburn's charity for all children. We have a wing of our hospital named in her honor.
Chris Reeves charity for spinal injuries. Remember him as Superman?

And many, many, many more.

They don't need a telethon when there name recognition brings in millions for charity. And like other famous millionaires of business who don't give, actors don't have to give either. Its a personal choice.

We all ready give to poverty in our country its called Welfare taxes.

I do understand that there are tons of charities Hollywood has contributed to I am not arguing that but I am arguing the fact that with the exception of when money was raised for 9/11 and Katrina it is not highly publizied to the public. All those events that Hollywood hosts to bring awareness to a situation are usually for other Hollywood types and billionare not the general public as telethons do when they are aired on 20 different channels for anyone to watch.

And are you saying that because we all pay Welfare Taxes that we are excused from giving anything else

Also one of my biggest problems is that most (I do understand people doing it on a regular basis, I too give to a local charity once a month that is included in my budget) only give when problems arise.

 

[christiane]

Just to set the record straight, this article was not written by Anderson Cooper. It was written as an entry on AC's blog.

The author is David Gewirtz who is the director of a think tank, the U.S. Strategic Perspective Institute. By definition, this group promotes the welfare of the US so nothing contained in the blog is surprising.

 

[DancingBear]

You cannot help men permanantly by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves. (Abraham Lincoln)

For the record, Lincoln didn't say that.

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/lincoln/prosperity.asp

 

[LuvCuteBoys]

People can do what they want. But personally, I feel blessed simply for being born an American citizen. It's not the fault of the orphaned Haitian child that he was not and my residence certainly doesn't make me more important than he is.

Human life is human life.

 

[gina2000]

I love the comment "we should be helping our own." All I ever hear on these boards is:

a) Don't bail out individual mortgage problems - that's the owner's responsibility.

b) Don't bail out the corporations - they should sink or swim on their own merits.

c) Don't throw more money at education; we spend enough on it already.

d) Welfare fraud is rampant in the US and we shouldn't fund welfare except on a local level.

e) People should find jobs that have benefits; we shouldn't be paying for them via a national health care system, Medicaid, or any other public assistance program.

f) Food stamp recipients largely scam the system.

And on and on and on. So let me ask you....WHO are you REALLY willing to help?

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

...WHO are you REALLY willing to help?

Our family gives a considerable amout of both time and money to several local charities, as well as the American Diabetes Association (my wife is a Type I diabetic).

This in addition to the tens of thousands of dollars that Uncle Sam takes from us each year to distribute as he pleases...

If Uncle Sam took less, we could help so many more. That is, unless you think that Uncle Sam is doing a good job with those funds...

 

[toddlers_mom]

Where are "we" getting the $150m to donate? I thought we were broke. Don't we owe China a gazillion dollars now?

Wait, scratch that...China donated 150 million. It just has our "name" on it.

IMO, if we can afford to donate hundreds of millions to other countries, I never want to hear "we can't afford that" from our government when it comes to domestic programs ever again.

Exactly. What about our schools who are having to make huge budget cuts? What about every other program that was deemed unnecessary and was cut? Its ridiculous. I thought we were broke?

Its funny. Actually, extremely laughable. People whine and complain about bailouts and stimuli and how they are going to push our national debt sky high, but somehow we find 150 million dollars that we don't have in the first place? Its okay?

If individuals want to donate, that's awesome! Good for you! I truly hope Haiti gets the relief they need, but it shouldn't be on our governments broken shoulders to supply that relief if we can't afford it. Just like someone else said, we are always willing to help everyone else out but not our own.

 

[cheermom1]

my opinion ...if you give man fish to eat they are fed for one day, if you teach man to fish they are fed for their lives...

 

[Handbag Lady]

I think all Americans (US Americans, that is!) should really LOOK at how powerful we are. I don't know how much each of you gave to Haiti, but I know how much I did. It was an amount that wasn't enough to make me even think about it or anything.

Yet, we all raised MILLIONS of dollars for a single cause but putting in our $5, $10, and $100 when and where we could. I personally don't know anyone who gave more than $100.

Can you imagine what we can do if we just put our heads together and did this once a week/month for a single cause?

 

[curious3069]

So if we're so gung-ho about "helping our own", then increased borrowing or a tax increase to do so would be ok, right???

In the grand scheme of things, I have no problems giving that money to Haiti. It's a desperate situation and as a human being, there's no way I could look at a situation like that and say "nope, sorry, can't help you out". I would be ashamed of the United States if we just looked away.

 

[FireDancer]

I don't want any charity forced via taxation but the least we could do with the ridiculous amount we pay is keep it here to help our own. If at the end of the day we choose to give more to the causes we want that is fine.

Ideally we would have way more of what we earned to do with what we choose instead of see it float out the door to go to get lost in a bureaucratic abyss.

 

[Inigo]

What concerns me about the incredible amount raised for Haiti from the American people is whether other worthy causes are going to suffer as a result. We all have a limited amount of money, and therefore only have a limited amount we can donate to worthy causes.

Most people can't just pull money off the money tree in the backyard. If that's what they have available, that's it. They have to chose how to allocate their charity dollars. If someone can only donate $100, and they give that $100 for Haiti, that's $100 they aren't going to have available to donate to their regular worthy cause.

Will the American Cancer Society, The American Diabetes Association, the Girls' Club, the Boy Scouts, the March of Dimes, the local museum, etc, etc, etc, not get as much in donation since people gave their money for Haiti instead? How will those organizations deal with the shortfall of funds? Many worthy causes are already suffering because of the economy.

Just my thoughts.