At 02:35 PM 2/3/2003 -0500 Jean-Louis Couturier wrote:
>At 12:42 2003-02-03 -0500, Erik wrote:
>>On Fri, Jan 31, 2003 at 11:25:32PM -0500, Jean-Louis Couturier wrote:
>>
>> > What if you compare the number with a country's GDP? Still #1 you
>> > think?
>
>I was replying to the statement implying that since the US offers 60% of
>aid in the world then the rest of the world doesn't care/do a thing.
Countries
>like Canada offer a lot of aid, but since we are not as rich as the US, it
>doesn't count for as much. However, a greater percentage of my tax dollars
>go to foreign aid than it would were I an American.
Well, the US only accounts for something like 25-30% of the world's GDP
(I'm too lazy to look it up right now), not 60%.
Additionally, the American people are possibly the most generous people in
the world, and in the US we have a strong tradition of private donations to
charities, rather than government-confiscated donations to charity. Thus,
it is important when comparing the charitable efforts of Americans with
those of other nationalities to use *total* national donation, as private
donations are much more significant in the US than most every other place
in the world. If you look at that total number, I think that you will
see that the American people are quite generous when it comes to charitably
supporting the rest of the world.
JDG
_______________________________________________________
John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world,
it is God's gift to humanity." - George W. Bush 1/29/03
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