Everybody’s already done the $15 million US aid for tsunami aid versus $30-40 million for GWB’s second inauguration (not counting security), and we’re up to $50 million now (as a credit line– oooooo).
Let’s try some different numbers.
Flooz.com went through $51.5 million over three rounds of investment.
Meet The Fockers grossed $46,120,980 over the weekend.
Pets.com raised $35 million privately and $89 million in an IPO.
Furniture.com lost $46.5 million in 1999 alone. They also spent $2.5 million on the domain name.
We spent $50 million on the Columbia blowup. $70 million on the Clinton investigation.
Kozmo.com burned through about $250 million.
Webvan went through $1 Billion (with a B) in financing.
And finally, Wall Street gave nearly $16 Billion to employees this year as Christmas bonuses.
So when the director of UN Aid Relief says we’re stingy, y’know what? He’s right.
And at a time when we’re trying to win hearts and minds in that part of the world– hell, ANY part of the world– we don’t want to appear stingy.
Ridiculous. When the final tally of all the money from BOTH government AND private charities is counted up, Americans will be by far the most generous. As usual.
Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka government has refused amny and all aid from Israel. So instead of worrying about our alkleged stinginess we might be better off doing something about the psychosis currently infecting the officals of that sorry country.
So when the director of UN Aid Relief says we’re stingy, y’know what? He’s right.
And at a time when we’re trying to win hearts and minds in that part of the world– hell, ANY part of the world– we don’t want to appear stingy.
This kind of thinking is utterly ridiculous. The disaster just happened. We have not closed our wallets and said we are done. We will, once again, give very generously.
America ALREADY is more generous than any other nation on earth. Americans ALREADY give generously. To accuse us of being stingy is beyond being absurd. It is being immorally deceptive.
Jim in Iowa
Hell, at 2 million and rising, the contributions made to an Amazon.com relief fund will probably outperform the contributions made by many countries.
The good thing about the “stingy” remark is that is will ensure that when this is over we will be given an actual figure of total USA contributions and I have no doubt it will dwarf all others. This will not silence the naysayers but it will reveal them to be small small people.
And I’ll bet when that final big money accounting is made, the same folks who accuse the USA of stinginess will claim that they “shamed” us into doing better.
Very, very small.
And saying that “Ah, we’ll get around to helping eventually.” while people are dying is a mark of bigness?
*sigh*
I couldn’t help but notice that the $15 BILLION dollars we’ve budgeted for AIDS research in Africa is noticeably missing from that little list. As well as $3 BILLION dollars from California residents for state funding of Stem Cell Research. Oh, yeah, we’re just regular Scrooges, we are.
And what ever happened to beggars being grateful for what ever they get, even if they don’t think it’s enough?
Sure. Bush can’t even be bothered to leave his Christmas vacation in Crawford to deal with this tragedy, won’t give enough in federal funds until someone calls him on his lack of support, but you apologists gang up on Glenn because he has the nerve to point out that odinary Americans are much more generous when it comes to opening up their hearts and wallets than the “Compassionate Conservative” residing in the White House. Oh, I forget, Bush does no wrong, and if he does, all we need do is distract the public with something else until it goes away. By the way Bill, we didn’t add the 20 million to the kitty until the US was called stingy. If that wasn’t a reaction to the shame of being cheap, I don’t know what is.
Karen, what exactly is “enough?” What we were giving BEFORE the remark is still much more than most, if not all.
We were already giving. Someone at the UN decided to be a hypocritical dick. End of story.
Notes: we’ve only delivered a fraction of the $15 billion promised for AIDS in Africa. See http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2004/03/31/unkept_promise_on_aids/
As far as America being more generous than any other nation: according to the CIA, we’re about 21st in giving as a percentage of GDP. We’re second to Japan in total cash given.
To add to Glenn’s point:
In 2000, the US and 188 other signed the UN Millenium Declaration, which made countries pledge to give 0.7% of their GDP to countries in need. Right now, according to the International Herald Tribune, the U.S. is giving 0.14 percent. Britain is about halfway to the goal, at 0.34 percent, France is at 0.41 percent, and Norway and Sweden are already exceeding the goal, at 0.92 percent and 0.79 percent.
This was taken from the boldprint blog.
In 2000, the US and 188 other signed the UN Millenium Declaration, which made countries pledge to give 0.7% of their GDP to countries in need.
It all depends on the yardstick you’re measuring with and what the intent is.The most common measure of generosity isn’t based on the GDP.
The United States uses the most common measure of the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group of 30 rich nations that counts development aid.
By that measure, the United States spent almost $15.8 billion for “official development assistance” to developing countries in 2003. Next closest was Japan, at $8.9 billion.
That doesn’t include billions more the United States spends in other areas, such as AIDS and HIV programs and other U.N. assistance.
I don’t think it’s any big secret that Glenn’s “point” was to make this administration look as bad as possible. It’s pretty much all he ever does.
This administration doesn’t need my help to look as bad as possible. I refer back to my “hearts and minds” comment.
We’ve just had a gigantic disaster in a heavily Muslim part of the world, one which has killed to date 20 times the number of those killed on 9/11, and easily has the potential to go up an order of magnitude or two in the aftermath.
And the aid we announce is equivalent to a few hours of what we spend in Iraq. Even when the countries affected are ones that we are hoping will come in and donate troops to the effort, like India.
Make the Bush administration look bad? How bad do you have to be to lose popularity contests with Iraqi insurgents and Osama bin Laden?
“you apologists gang up on Glenn because he has the nerve to point out that odinary Americans are much more generous when it comes to opening up their hearts and wallets than the “Compassionate Conservative” residing in the White House.”
I challange you to point out the passage where Glenn does that.
And it should be pointed out that, in fact, the director of UN Aid Relief did NOT say that the USA was stingy. Heis statement was directed at ALL western countries. It would be a bit chauvanistic to assume such a blanket statement, right or wrong, applies only to the USA.
The fact that it seems to be very difficult to find out just how much money the United States and its people give to the less fortunate probably tells you all you need to know. Take the billions we give in foreign aid, the amount given by private charities and, if one wants to be a completist, the amounts sent back home by foreign nationals working here (some of my latino students come from families that are supporting many times their own number with the money they send back to South America) and I’d wager that the final tally will be higher than any other nation.
But if some liberals want to further piss off the electorate with this issue, be my guest. I saw one of the most liberal folks I know practically throw a fruitcake at the TV when two consequtive news stories were about the “stingy” comment followed by the Sri Lanken refusal of Israeli aid.
After 2 months of listening to the
“Americans are stupid” meme we now get the “And they’re CHEAP, too.” Way to win those hearts and minds, gang.
And hey, before someone does it, please, my conservative bretheren and sisterens, don’t say something like “if only the $yaddayadaa spent by liberals in Ohio to show that Bush won by 120,210 votes instead of 120,943 votes had been sent to starving kids in Indonesia…”. This is a game that 2 can play but that doesn’t make it a game worth playing…
This is the kind of situation that warrants the use of the Luke quote about things in eyes.
How much you, as in ‘yourself’, have donated? How does it compare to how much you spend in comics, video games, alcohol, smokes or whatever useless things you buy?
And the aid we announce is equivalent to a few hours of what we spend in Iraq. Even when the countries affected are ones that we are hoping will come in and donate troops to the effort, like India.
We were one of the first countries to announce that were sending aid. and we announced before we knew the true extent of damage and destruction.
I think it’s also important to look at what we do with our money compared to other countries. Admittedly, we’re behind in our dues, for good reasons as far as I’m concerned, but we practically finance the United Nations single-handedly. We’re quick to forgive a nation’s debt to us if they need help. We gave Mexico 12 billion dollars and then forgave the debt. We’ve guarded the borders of Germany, Japan and South Korea for years. While they’ve built up their infrastructure, we’ve guarded their backs. We put more money into our school and welfare system than anywhere else in the world, meanwhile our own Social Security system ins’t very secure and may not be there when we retire. We’re taking jobs from ourt own people and farming them out to the thrid world countries only to be criticized by your liberal cousins for exploiting the poor. And we’re running a five trillion dollar national debt, and at least a 300 billion dollar deficit and their calling us STINGY!!!
Hell, spending money is the one thing we seem to be able to do just fine!
Let me make a long range prediction–when and if anyone from Indonesia, Sumatra, or any of the other afflicted countries that Bush is sending money to commits some act of terrorism, some of the very same folks now kvetching about aid will claim that Bush supported terrorits. Bet on it.