I want your honest opinion..

Losershawn

We should help those that are willing to work toward sustainability be it in our country or others. The ones that just expect a hand out can die off in my opinion. If your not willing to work/fight for a good life, I am not willing to work/fight to support you. That might sound callous, but you wanted honesty.

I would tend to agree!

MzBug

We should help those that are willing to work toward sustainability be it in our country or others. The ones that just expect a hand out can die off in my opinion. If your not willing to work/fight for a good life, I am not willing to work/fight to support you. That might sound callous, but you wanted honesty.

I agree!

SommerJo

There is a really good book called Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. One of the things discussed is that many of these third world countries are starving because they have overpopulated and tapped out their resources. He brings up the point that IF this is true, we are actually not doing them a favor by handing them out more food. Instead, if left alone, their populations will be reduced (die off) to what their resources can actually support. Controversial, but definitely an interesting thought.

I agree with the other posters that we should support our own first...

i remember that book -- it really was good

Ok -- my democrat is going to show here -- but I think we can do both. We just need to be smarter about it. We need to utilize all our resources. For instance -- drive through any city -- there are closed buildings -- forclosed homes. We have plenty of space to house the homeless we have. I think too often we equate throwing money at a problem as helping it. So of course we run out of money before we can "help" everyone.

And yes -- we have food stamps and welfare -- but who's ever taken the time to teach these families how to budget and save -- how to shop to get the biggest bang for the dollar -- how to eat to stay healthy -- or get healthy. Or we give them foodstamps -- but they don't have a fridge or a freezer. Or even a home sometimes. I guess I'm one of those people that think those who have the means to give should give- time, knowledge, money. I guess I lean towards socialism in that I don't think anyone should go without basic necessities -- and I believe the government should be required to provide that. But even more -- things such as health care, education, childcare -- should be equally accessible to all.

I think when you don't provide for all -- it opens the door to discrimination. I saw so many negative comments when US aided Afghanistan and Haiti after their earthquakes -- but not so many when we helped Japan. When you don't have a system in place for helping EVERYONE -- it appears to give value to one life, person, culture, religion, race, gender -- more than another.

I think we need to be more thoughtful, take more initiative, and be more creative and you'll see more impact on areas such as homelessness and hunger. And yes -- I like my rose colored glasses very much lol