On the radio the other day, some of the talk jockeys were complaining about Haiti. They were literally saying things like, “I’m already sick of seeing commercials asking for donations of aid to Haiti” and “Why should we be giving aid to these foreign countries when we can’t take care of our own? There are starving and homeless people in America and people without health care and …” I understand that their job is to stir up controversy so people call-in and listen and they can sell advertising and such, but it was purely nonsensical.
And so on. You get the drift. I agree that it’s very disingenuous for millionaire celebrities to come on TV or radio and starting pimping for donations when they’re not doing a damn thing themselves (some of them are, some of them aren’t) and I’ll be the first person to take the side of complaints raised against the government doling out taxpayer money (isn’t it all taxpayer money?) for foreign aid*. Every time there is some major calamity in the world, like the tsunami in 2004 or the hurricanes in 2005 or earthquakes or whatever, Americans give in spades. And celebrity marketing, give me a freaking break.
Could we give more? Probably. In my estimation, the biggest impediment to charitable giving in the U.S. is the already onerous tax rates, which the government uses ostensibly to provide the citizens with things they would otherwise provide for themselves. Like health care. Insurance. Food. Housing. Education. The list is endless. If we don’t give “enough” it’s clearly not because we’re greedy and selfish.
I don’t want “my” government donating to the rest of the world. I don’t want “my” government spending money on anything. Truth. But that’s not the argument they were making.
What I really took issue with on this fine radio program was the spirit of their argument. The douche-nozzles were seriously equating a “poor” American (who probably has cable TV and air conditioning and eats fast food, etc.) with third-world Haitians who have lived their entire lives under brutal political regimes and civil war and who have now suffered the wrath of nature, and suggesting that as Americans, we have no business giving money to destitute brown people in third world countries as long as there are Americans who can’t buy luxury items.
No matter how shitty you think life is in America, it’s way f*cking worse for a pretty substantial proportion of the rest of the world.
*The U.S. government probably spends more money on foreign aid already than does the entire rest of the world combined. And on top of all that, Americans pay more than $1 Trillion to charitable organizations every year — more than the US government collects in income taxes.
