The poor in the US & the poor in the rest of the world..

Good points. I´ve always found it weird how you can define someone as being poor. There´s a poverty level and people living under this level are poor by definition, but this level is based on income. What if money is a scarecity? All anyone really needs to survive is food, clothing and shelter. If you can build or make these things, are you still poor?
Are you poor because you can´t BUY food but have to grow it?
Are you poor because you make too little money to get cable tv?
Are you poor if you want more money?

Nuke this thread…>:)

@Anonymous:

Nuke this thread…>:)

love too, but a little too abusive of my “powers”.
(although - with great power comes great responsibility . . . )

Theres poverty and theres relative poverty.

Poverty in America is nothing compared to poverty in some parts of the world. In Africa for instance, some neighborhoods which would be seen as the worst poverty in America are better off than some other local neighborhoods. As a result of this, the people are happier.

You don’t need three computers, four cars, six TVs, and a lobster dinner to be happy. Happiness is relative. If people can live in relative safety from Famine, War, and Crime, then they will generally be happy.

@cystic:

@Anonymous:

Nuke this thread…>:)

love to, but a little too abusive of my “powers”.
(although - with great power comes great responsibility . . . )

This reminds me of a biblical story:
Jesus and his disciples witness the giving of 2 people - a wealthy (business) man, and a poor widow. The man gave a considerable amount of money, the woman gave 2 pennies (or the equivalent). The punchline, of course being that as the woman gave so much of what she had, her’s was the greater gift in the eyes of God.

@El:

Let’s include the topic of Charity here…
but it leaves out UNDOCUMENTED giving and …
What say you?

Ahm, believe me, we have secure intelligence proof that there is money flowing from the US to elsewhere……

That is the problem with undocumented.
I personally have spent more on charity than the rest of the world, i just cannot document it ;)

@El:

Another form of World Charity…
What happens to the world’s economy if all countries buy their own products where available, but elsewhere when necessary…

I think i didn’t totally understand that. You mean “buy their own even if moer expensive”, and only if that is not enough go and import?
I suppose so, so let’s look…

Canada buys its own lumber. The US buys Canadian lumber. Who is helped? Canadian limber industries. Who is hurt? US lumber industries.

Not right. Canada is the biggest exporter of lumber products (21.2%). They would be hurt if people did not buy from them. The US only has 11.1% of that market, they mainly sell their lumber in their country anyway. In contrast the 31 millions Canadians don’t use as much wood as the 275 million USies (per capita they are comparable). The US lumber industry would lose not as much as the Canadians. So…. you are wrong :)

Source: http://www.cofi.org/reports/factbook2000/Chapters from FACTBOOK 2000-Part I.pdf

The US buys its own Christmas decorations. China buys its own Christmas decorations. Who is helped? The US foofaraw industries. Who is hurt? Chinese prison wardens and sweatshops.

Well, does it hurt the chinese (who probably don’t have that big market for christmas deco)? They would put that work into something else. It would help the US industry though, taken that you USies import a cheap lot from China.

Japan buys its own computer chips. The US buys Japanese computer chips. Who is helped? Japanese tech industries. Who is hurt? US tech industries.

Why are they hurt? By what you say in the beginning the above means that there are no US chips available. How does that hurt the US, when there are none anyway?

The US buys its own wines and beer. France and Germany buy their own wines and beers. Who is helped? The US alcohol industries. Who is hurt? The French and Germany brewmeisters.

Do not forget the US customers here, who are hurt, and the german and french drinking people, who can be sure to get good beer and wine only and not fall into this mean “Budweiser”/“Budvar” trap….

Russia cannot afford to buy its own diamonds. The EU and US buy Russian diamonds. Who is helped? Russia, the EU and US. Who is hurt? Nobody.

“Can’t afford” kind of contradicts the term “available”. The EU and US, having no large diamond mines would buy russian/south african diamonds anyway. So, i don’t see why the real world and your model would differ here at all.

The US watches its own Whorelywood movies and TurpitudeVision. The EU watches Cannes movies and ?. Who is helped? France is better off because the youth of France no longer have American negative behavioural influence and the French language is saved from Anglicization. The US is better off because Whorelywood only has 30% of its original budget. This causes fewer movies to be made, but they are of better quality(otherwise, the good and great directors, producers, actors keep working, but Sean Penn, Michael Moore, Madonna and Julia Roberts are working as telephone solicitors in East LA.) Both the US and Europe find a strange thing happening… families are spending personal time together. Who is hurt? Canada has an influx of unemployed actors and Peter Jennings.

Don’t forget Australia who would suffer from that with unemployed actors… and i don’t think the quality for Hollywood movies would go up:
(1) Sean Penn is a great actor
(2) you would lose/have lost the services of Mel Gibson, Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett, Russell Crowe, Elle Macpherson, Stephen Hopkins (dir), Errol Flynn (all Australia); Klaus Kinski, Johnny Weissmüller (!), Franka Potente, Marlene Dietrich, Fritz Lang (dir), F.W. Murnau (dir), R. Fassbinder (dir), W. Wenders (dir), Billy Wilder (dir), Roland Emmerich (dir); Wolfgang Petersen (dir), E. Lubitsch (dir), Peter Lorre (all Germany, Austria)…

Now look at the movies never made or seen by you…
Casblanca (Lorre), Tarzan (Weissmüller), for Flynn see:
http://www.imdb.com/Name?Flynn,+Errol
No “Independance day”, no Godzilla (Emmerich), no “Patriot” and “Lethal Weapons” (Gibson), No “beautiful mind”, “Gladiator” (Crowe), no Nosferatu (Kinski, Fassbinder; Murnau), no Metropolis (Lang), no “M” (Lorre, Lang), no “Run, Lola, run” (Potente),
etc. etc. etc. etc.
and these are only two countries …

So, i guess the quality would be even worse :)