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Why is it OK for us to live in luxury while people are DYING from poverty?

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Tzar_Chasm

Everyday I'm wracked with guilt. Since when was it acceptable for us to spend money on things we don't actually need, rather than helping people who are dying because of poverty?

Is this not the ultimate humanitarian crime?

People speak of the horrors of war and the Holocaust. But look at ourselves today. We sit back while people are dying in agony. We are evil, evil people. We should do absolutely everything in our power to help these people.

Poverty will be viewed in the same moral outrage as slavery and genocides gone by.

When I discovered the poverty that exists in our would, it was then I lost faith in humanity.

I SMELL COMMUNISM!

Reply 61

Bobifier

L i b

I certainly believe one man can make a great difference, but in this case I am not that one man. The man concerned is the man who lives under these system that oppress him and force him into a life of poverty. What you will find, instead, however is that many of these systems are positively supported by great swathes of the populations they oppress.

Easy, perhaps, for you to say...

Reply 62

xinjaing

Our ancestors were evil. They fleeced other countries for their own ill gotten gains. Colonialism, stealing of other peoples' properties, unequal treaties and so on. Therefore our Lord, Allah and others will punish us though fake biddings for a family heir loom because their ancestor stole a valuable item during the Second Opium War, and terrorism, etc.

Reply 63

menaa-x

Who say's it's okay :s-smilie:

Reply 64

rockrunride

Because the free market and colonialism rules.

Spoiler

Reply 65

rockrunride

Bobifier

I SMELL COMMUNISM!

I smell the ZOMG COMMUNISM card.

Reply 66

Sithius

Genocidal

Oh for god sake another damn peace junkie thread. I will tell you why its fair to live lives of luxury because for one despite what you might think most of our lives are not lives of luxury compared to the top elite of the country and another reason is alot of us have worked for this and you only live once so why should we dumb ourselves down to the bare necessary things just to help some third world country I would rather enjoy my life now while I have it.

Translation: I am a selfish prick.

OP, why should we have to bring our own standard of living down to such a poor level when developed countries governments can bring about changes to not only more or less maintain their own countries standard of living, but also further the development of third world countries? Demonstrations are a much more effective way of getting things done.

Reply 67

rajandkwameali

isn't looking for everything to be equalised and fair a five year old mentality?

Haven't socialists mastered complexity of thought or the idea that life is shades of grey?

I'd say other issues prolong inequality in developing countries. I mean, why does the Indian caste system still exist (aside from Brahmins and other high caste people prolonging it due to self-interest)? What about women in the Islamic world?

At least in the West we have social equality, legal equality and equality of legal rights. The third world countries the OP is talking about largely couldn't dream of this. :yes:

Reply 68

username291885

It's because those with money don't care about those without.

Probably caused by self-survival instincts.

Reply 69

rajandkwameali

xinjaing

in modern UK, we don't imprison people for not believing in our political system. We don't censor what people can see on the Internet. We don't suppress protests in areas we annexed. :wink:

Reply 70

rajandkwameali

Fusion

Are you horrible and selfish?

A person who is not selfish is not human.

Reply 71

xinjaing

rajandkwameali

in modern UK, we don't imprison people for not believing in our political system. We don't censor what people can see on the Internet. We don't suppress protests in areas we annexed. :wink:

One cannot judge by the cover of the book.

Reply 72

thecdon

op, what do you want us to do about it?

Reply 73

L i b

xinjaing

Johnny Foreigner would have done exactly the same to us given half the chance. It is very hard to concern ourselves with the moral consequences of taking from those who do not understand property rights except by force and whose rulers ruled by that force.

Ultimately, however, European imperialism was what brought half of earth's population into the modern world.

rajandkwameali

A person who is not selfish is not human.

Of course you're trolling, but as the adage goes: the truest words are often spoken in jest.

Bobifier

Easy, perhaps, for you to say...

Indeed it is, and it's my position to say and indeed to judge the situation on my behalf, for it is my effort the OP is demanding.

joshseddon

I don't really like to think of life being a 'lottery' I think if you maybe ended up being born in harsher conditions I don't think you would think.. 'oh well life's a lottery'.

But it certainly is. It is only due to powers outwith human control that you were born with a functional mind and body: plenty of people are not.

Reply 74

maromad89

I completely agree with you, Einstein once said "The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it". It is not easy to solve every problem in the world, but it is a matter of having the right attitude (and not just a few, but millions of people).

Reply 75

RobertPires

In short - It isn't.

You won't however get much agreement from the vast majority of middle class capitalists on these forums.

Reply 76

robbo3045

I don't feel guilty. Each society is responsible only to itself. We have built up this culture of materialism, and we should not be guilty for the opportunities available to us. It's not our fault that some cultures are unable to run a stable society. But we however as a country send millions in aid each year, even when we have many problems with the NHS and poverty ourselves. We don't have to do that, but we do and any decent person would. However it is up to them for liberation.

Reply 77

james_dow

who gives a **** about starving etheopians not I, kill them all i say.

Reply 78

Gazule

Poverty is anathema to everything humanity has worked towards. It is a privation of everything that a human being deserves.

Reply 79

Eien

The old "people are starving in Africa" argument... I don`t like it when people say this in an accusatory tone as if we are responsible for it - it is the cause of other people/governments/whatever other cause and isn`t exactly something we can stop by somehow lowering our own standard of living. Of course people can donate, make financial contributions, go to help out in the countries itself, but it still won`t stop such atrocities happening. I do believe there is certainly value in at least making some kind of contribution (I donate 8.50 a month to Oxfam), but it will never be enough, and is simply the state of the world as it is.

This may be a very blase viewpoint, and one that is easy to say in a position such as mine, but really, what can be expected of us to do? There are many efforts, financial charities and programs which DO improve the lives of the poor - it`s not as if people in developed nations do nothing. Also, whether I finish my dinner or not, it won`t make an Iota of difference to people "starving in Africa".

Also, I believe the communist idealogy is in theory the optimum one to live by, but in practice it does not work due to the way human nature is - i.e. self-interest, the wish to gain more, the diversity of humans, etc.