Whiny Americans
30,000 dead in an earthquake in Asia. Last year, 200,000 dead in a tsunami in Asia.
If one were superstitious, one might begin to think that living in Asia is not a great idea. And who knows, perhaps all of this is happening for a reason. I wouldn’t begin to try and guess what it might be, except perhaps retribution by God. But if that were the case, I think the good old US would be deserving of a heaping helping as well.
However, that’s not why I bring it up.
How many people died in Katrina? Somewhere around 1,000? We’re going to spend 300 billion dollars repairing one city where 1,000 people died. We’re sending 50 million to Asia.
Now, I’d be the first person to say we should look out for ourselves before helping others, but lets be pragmatic for a moment. 300 billion dollars for a swampy toilet bowl of a city seems like a bad tradeoff for helping an entire COUNTRY, a country which could probably be rebuilt in its entirety for about 5 billion.
I’m disgusted with the way we blow things out of proportion in the US. We’re so incredibly spoiled that we will talk about a few hundred dead for months, and only talk about 200,000 dead for a few weeks. That seems ridiculous to me.
If we were not so deeply invested in our “oil assets” in the Middle East, we would have plenty of resources to bail out New Orleans AND give some real help to Asia. (i.e. build some buildings to actual earthquake codes, install a fricking alarm system so people can evacuate)
We are so whiny, and it seems especially so concerning New Orleans. When one chooses to live in between an ocean, a major delta, and a huge lake, water is bound to be a problem at some point. If you don’t like it, go somewhere else! It’s not the fault or the responsibility of anyone else in the US to fix it for you.
Am I saying we shouldn’t help the people in New Orleans? Of course not. We should feed them, clothe them, and give them space in a shelter until they can figure out what they’re going to do. What we shouldn’t do is give them a brand new house in the same stupid location that just got wiped out. Most of the people affected by Katrina were poor. Most people would say that means they need EXTRA help. To me, it means they already didn’t have anything, and now they still don’t have anything. If they lost a 10,000$ house, we certainly shouldn’t spend 100,000$ on a new one for them.
That’s just outright communism.
Monday, October 10th, 2005
