Indeed, can scarcely imagine a populace more driven by selfishness and hate.
[ul]
[li] 89% of US households contribute to charities[/li][li] The average annual contribution is $1,620[/li][li] 83.9 million Americans do volunteer charitable work[/li][li] Volunteers contribute 15.5 billion hours, worth $239.2 billion[/li][li] 71% of all adults volunteer when asked[/li][li] Only 10% of Americans neither give nor volunteer[/li][li] Since WWII, the US government has spent about $1 trillion on foreign aid[/li][li] Private US foundations give $1.5 billion per year to foreigners[/li][li] US businesses contribute $2.8 billion annually[/li][li] US NGOs give $6.6 billion[/li][li] US religious organizations spend $3.4 billion for health care, literacy, relief, and development[/li][li] US colleges give foreign students $1.3 billion in scholarships[/li][li] Individuals from the US give $18 billion to causes in developing countries[/li][/ul]
Good question. Let me rephrase to say that when it comes to imported pot, most comes from Mexico, with anywhere from 1/10th to 1/100th coming from Canada.
Although you’d probably get a more accurate response from someone who actually uses weed. Or maybe less accurate
I believe Muffin left out one of the true driving forces of the government and most likely a majority of the people of the United States - greed. Selfishness (the “I got mine” mentality) and hate (which includes xenophobia, homophobia and religious intolerance) only takes you so far - greed will take you the rest of the way.
You truly are a bottom-feeding mental slug. Even when confronted with facts that directly contradict your idiotic premise, you cannot stop yourself from posting your own selfish, hateful, intolerant opinion formed from a black hole of ignorance. Apologize, and admit your error.
It was actually Muffin’s premise, not mine. I just added to it.
As to whether I’m a bottom-feeding mental slug, well, time will tell. Apologize and admit my error? That could happen. It’s in the realm of possibilities.
Do you have anything to counter the facts I’ve given that refute the premise you’re defending, ANYTHING?
No? I didn’t think so.
What a dim fucking bulb you are — calling me a dickhead for correcting the record on a board dedicated to fighting ignorance. I think you need to climb out of that damn mirror and bust it to pieces.
Liberal, there’s a difference between individual actions and the actions of a nation. I don’t think anyone here means to imply that individual Americans are all bad or greedy or hateful. Nevertheless, one could argue that as a nation, based on the decisions the US makes in relation to other countries and the sort of cultural products it exports, it has different qualities than the individual.
I certainly wouldn’t argue that the US is driven by hate and/or greed. I doubt it’s driven by pure love for fellow humans, either.
Look again. From Featherlou (and apparently her lapdog, Alice):
“I believe Muffin left out one of the true driving forces of the government and most likely a majority of the people of the United States - greed. Selfishness (the “I got mine” mentality) and hate (which includes xenophobia, homophobia and religious intolerance) only takes you so far - greed will take you the rest of the way.”
Actually, I don’t agree with Featherlou. I just think you’re a dickhead. Not to mention an asshole. Not to mention, not particularly bright around the edges. A prick. A jerk. Pretty much a total assmunch. However, I have a solution.
I didn’t see that the first time around. And I disagree with it. Unless she meant the ‘majority’ is driven by yadda yadda, because as I said before, I think there’s a difference between what the majority and the goverment does/thinks and individuals.
Actually, the wishes of the majority is what produces the government. I did not say that all Citizens of the United States of America are selfish, hateful and greedy, and I would not say that.
If you accept the premise that the government is selfish, hateful and greedy, however, you may also accept the premise that the majority of the people agree with these policies. If you don’t accept this premise, then mine doesn’t stand, either. I can live with that.
I certainly believe that at least 51% of the American voters support the routine torture of Iraqi civilians, unlimited American military adventurism with increasing numbers of dead and injured US soldiers, higher levels of pollution in air and water, the evasion of taxes by the rich, sharp restrictions to freedom of speech, and massive deficits that will cripple their children’s economic future.
Actually, according to the “survey” that I saw, no they don’t. They simply don’t make the connection between these things and George Bush. I’m not defending that, just noting it.
Yeah, apparently the main charge that can be levelled against the US is that a great many Americans are willing to be bamboozled into voting for a government that runs counter to their ideals and interests.
While the circumstances specific to the American case may be interesting, I don’t think there are many countries that can claim superiority in that exact regard.
Liberal, your interpretation of US foreign aid figures leaves something to be desired. It does not support your inflammatory rhetoric.
Let’s take a look at foreign aid given by the US government. Let’s suppose for a moment that the government is at least vaguely reflective of the will of the people.
Measuring US foreign aid in absolute terms is uninformative. It is not adjusted for inflation, it is not measured as a proportion of US GDP, and it does not show where the aid is concentrated.
While it is true that the US is the largest absolute donor in the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC), the ratio of donation to gross national income (GNI) is a mere .11%. This is the lowest proportion of all DAC donors, and it falls well below the average contribution ratio of .40%.
Furthermore, it is worth noting exactly where our aid goes. This chart is instructive. Nearly a quarter of our foreign aid is unallocated. Half goes to middle income countries, predominantly in the Middle East. Our actual aid to less developed countries is less than 25% of our total allocation.
Perhaps you can forgive me for thinking that aid to Israel, Egypt, Russia, Pakistan, and Jordan aren’t exactly signs of our manifold generosity. To my mind, this is a small number of countries with special political significance.
This article presents a fairly balanced comparison of private giving between the US and Europe. It is useful to consider that taxes in Europe are far higher than they are in the US, and that Europeans are not offered tax incentives to give to charity. Finally, whether one includes gifts to religious bodies or not makes an enormous difference in tracking giving in the US. Some of us do not consider donations to religious groups that sponsor certain kinds of activities very generous.
Here are some of the reasons why I believe that the USA is a country that is driven by selfishness and hate. I only hope that it can turn itself around.
Since someone’s already apologized for Coulter on behalf of the USA, I’d like to apologize on behalf of Canada for bigoted idiots like featherlou, whose impression of the United States is apparently entirely derived from watching “The O.C.” and repeats of “Mississippi Burning” on First Choice.
But fo course, in the minds of simpletons like featherlou, I guess there’s no poverty, hate, racial inequality or greed in Canada.
I guess we see that every country has its bigoted assholes. The stupidity required to come up with the astounding claim that, in a nation of three hundred MILLION people, the majority just happen to be driven by hate and greed - despite the fact that the country, relative to most other countries, seems to get along fairly well and hasn’t imploded - is truly staggering. How can anyone be this dumb?
I assure everyone that decent Canadians are doing our best to educate people like featherlou and muffin, but some people are just born bad, and there’s only so much you can do.
