Should I feel bad that I have substantially more than others? Should I feel guilty if I have ten suits when a father in Mozambique makes 7$ a month and has to spend a month’s salary to provide malaria medication for his three-year-old daughter? Is it wrong to see design TV shows as being too extravagant when families in the Philippines have dirt floors or cooking shows as being too self-absorbed when families in Kenya get water from a dirty, disease-ridden puddle?
Is it better to have more?
It doesn’t matter what position in life we are accorded. It is what we do in that position that will in the end matter. If you are in a position of great wealth, what are you doing with that wealth? Are you helping others in need? the D&C teaches us that “to whom much is given, much is required.”
Hey Kim, just send your extra stuff my way, I’d be more than happy to relieve your guilty conscience.
I don’t even have one suit. :) Then again, people in Sudan don’t even have shoes.
well it’s not because we didn’t try to get you a suit and shoes :-P
The true question. Should you lower your standard of living or should the people you mentioned raise their standard of living?
I watched a show on TV about the natives in S. America and these people spent most of a day blocking the stream with rocks and mud so they could catch a few small fish. I thought to myself, that if I was there, I would make a trap and go do other things as opposed to the labor of blocking a stream.
The point I’m trying to make is this, there is nothing wrong with using the wisdom you have to make your life easier. Feeling guilty about using your labors to have a better quality life, is not a righteous way of thinking.
Perhaps any guilt you feel for having more is from trying to be too liberal.
George
“The true question. Should you lower your standard of living or should the people you mentioned raise their standard of living?”
Perhaps you don’t understand what Kim is saying. These people CANNOT raise their standard of living. They live in places where this is impossible. It’s not just that they don’t have the desire to do so, it’s that they live in such conditions that there is no ability to raise it beyond what they have. They can’t buy a lottery ticket and voila, instant millionaire. They can’t get a better job, they can’t move, they can’t buy a better house. It’s not there, it’s not available, it’s not POSSIBLE.
“I thought to myself, that if I was there, I would make a trap and go do other things as opposed to the labor of blocking a stream.”
I am not sure you understand, they don’t have either the skill, or the materials or the means. IT IS NOT POSSIBLE.
“Perhaps any guilt you feel for having more is from trying to be too liberal.”
You really don’t know Kim. No, what he is saying is we have all this wealth, even when we don’t, when there are people who literally have nothing. A man who makes $7.00 a month. And that is to house and feed and care for his whole family. How can we complain when there are people who DON’T have so much? They don’t have furniture, when people here have 5-10 rooms full of it. If we run out of food we can go to the store and get some, if they run out they might have to wait weeks to buy a little bit.
Besides that, Kim wasn’t saying he felt guilty (you really need to read his posts properly).
Besides that we have more than wisdom in our first world countries. We have opportunity, they don’t. It isn’t their lack of wisdom or intelligence or even, in some cases, ability, they are just unable to get more. And sometimes trying to get more can cost their lives.
Only when GBH announced the P.E.F. program that it occured to me that many of my native Brazilian missionary companions from a decade earlier did not have the same opportunity for a college education as I did.
Since then I have done a lot of pondering about whether or not LDS members in 1st world countries are doing enough to help out their brothers and sisters in lesser developed countries.
In Zion their should be no distinction between rich and poor but I think that we have a long ways yet to reach that goal.
This tug between the haves and havenots is contributing greatly to illegal immigration crisis here in California.
I dispute Mary’s arguments in #5 – the havenots have two huge options to increase their standard of living. A) Get a Higher Education (which in poor countries can quadruple your earnings potential) or B) Move to a land of opportunity that pays higher wages.
“the havenots have two huge options to increase their standard of living”
Huge, but very distant.
Roland
They can’t always do this. If they could move, as easily as that, they would be out of there. Many of them don’t have access to higher education. It seems a no brainer to us, because it is accessible here, but for them it isn’t as easy as that. If they could get a higher education, more of them would, if they could leave the country more of them would. Often, people DO leave the country and work for years and years to bring other family over. This includes children, spouses, siblings and parents. The options you list aren’t as easy as they look on paper.
On my mission I had one person turn down our baptism challenge because he saw our church as being too rich. (He was referring to the picture of the Sao Paulo temple. He said that he couldn’t feel comfortable attending a church that had so much money to build such extravagent buildings while he was in poverty.)
I have been bothered by thoughts that both the members and the church is not doing enough in contributions to the Fast Offering and PEF funds and welfare funds to help other people, even fellow church members in less advantaged countries.
“…the church is not doing enough in contributions to the Fast Offering and PEF funds and welfare funds to help other people…”
Yes, but strangely enough the church has plenty of money to buy entire malls…
Church members I think he meant, not the Church.
The Church bought a mall? Where?
Salt Lake City.
See here and here.
On most of Mary’s missive I disagree with it. Yes there are examples where one cannot move forward but that is not true world wide. You are neglecting that often wealth generation is a multi generational process.
Before the Civil War, my family owned plantations and were quite wealthy. After the Civil War, they lost everything and became very poor for several generations. My great grandparents were migrate farm workers. They moved from state to state picking crops. There is nothing poorer than a migrate farm worker with children to feed.
What you have left out of your example is the opportunites our society has made available to those who make use of them. The example of the people who dam the stream in S America is more about making their lives better with what they have as opposed to doing nothing to improve it. Some of the richest people in the world live in the poorest countries.
The Lord does not want his children to be poor. He wants to bless us with wealth. But we have to work for it. It will not be given to us.
The people of the USA are by far the richest in the world and they work hard for the items they have.
I find it amazing that the early LDS pioneers went west with so little and yet their descendants now have so much. No one gave it to them, they worked for it. Yes it took generations to get where they are and you are ignoring the hard work those who came before you did so you could live as you do now. Do not discredit their efforts with those who did not.
I assume you have running water in your home. Hopefully it does not just soak in but you have pipes that bring it to you. I used to live in Arizona and the early pioneers made these huge canals that brings water daily from the mountains to the valley. Mesa Arizona would not be what it is today if it had not been for the hard work and planning of those early LDS members. The desert of Arizona is harsh. It is as harsh as any desert on earth and yet it blossoms as a rose.
Feel guilty for having wealth – NO
Feel sad that others have not worked or planned – YES.
Offer to help – YES
There is poor in the USA but they are not required to stay there. They can and some do move out of poverty and they do it by working and saving and getting an education.
You lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink.
The Church has a lot of interesting Real Estate Holdings.
Such as the 37 story skyscraper on Broadway across from Lincoln Square. The 1st floor is a visitor center, 2nd floor is the NYC mission office, the 3rd and 4th floor is the complete NYC Stake Center with chapel, rec hall and classrooms, etc. And everything else above is regular condo apartments. (The elders and mission president had a couple.)
It was the only was you could find real estate for a church in downtown Manhattan.
But at the same time I don’t want to downplay the welfare funds being sent to build irrigation wells, schools, medical equipment and other critical infrastructure in poor countries around the world.
You can’t compare the poor in western first world countries to poor in third world countries. Completely different scenarios.
I take it George, that your ancestors lost their property after the US civil war because they had to free their slaves, so their wealth was made upon the backs of slavery, am I right? Again, that is not the same thing.
My ancestors came to this country (Canada) with nothing and made something out of nothing too.
I am also not saying hand everything to everyone on a silver platter. What I am saying is that in many of these third world situations they are not ABLE to get out of it without initial help. They don’t have resources to do so, many of them.
“There is nothing poorer than a migrate farm worker with children to feed.”
Not even someone living in a refugee camp? Or someone who is being held as a prisoner of war?
“The people of the USA are by far the richest in the world and they work hard for the items they have.”
Yeah, because it takes so much effort to be paid a minimum wage. Given the economy of the western world, I think a more accurate statement would be “they work hard to keep the items they have” given that many of those items are purchased on credit. For example, US consumer debt is over two trillion dollars.
“…welfare funds being sent to build irrigation wells, schools, medical equipment and other critical infrastructure in poor countries around the world.”
Does anyone have any links to an example of such an LDS aid project?
I’ve heard alot about them, but never read anything on them.
http://www.lds.org/ldsfoundation/welfare/0,7133,1325-1-9,00.html
Today in developing countries, there’s no land for the farmer. Education for the children is expensive, which the children need, but the family probably needs their income potential to feed themselves. Perhaps there are no parents, because they have died of disease or war. The basics of life(food, water, shelter) in many places takes every member of the family working as hard and as smart as any Arizona pioneer.
Maybe this should be another thread, but I have a friend in my ward that just got back from doing social work in Uganda, I’ll invite her to join in the discussion.
#6 is one of the most racist/ethnocentric/bigoted (I’ll let you pick) missives I’ve read in a long time. Impossible for these people to improve their standard of living? Please, think before you write.
Racist? How so, Paul?
Paul
One thing you cannot accuse me of is bigotry or racism.
What I am trying to express is that in some of these countries, they don’t have the opportunities that people in first world countries have, to improve their own situations without outside help. What George is trying to say is that sure they can, since we can. Are you telling me that the situation in those places, where a family man makes $7 a month to support his family is in the same situation as a poor man in the US or Canada?
I get the feeling you completely, possibly deliberately, misunderstood me. I think the most important thing we as Latter day Saints and as human beings can do is help each other. I don’t see how saying there are some people who are in situations where they cannot help themselves (at least initially) can be construed as racist, ethnocentric, or bigoted. People in third world countries, in such desperate situations don’t have the resources we have in first world countries. They don’t have government funded employment programs, they don’t have subsidised housing, or food banks.
You should read what I say with a clearer mind. Good grief.
Did you think I was saying they are lazy??? I certainly hope not, because that is not at ALL what I was saying. I am saying that they can’t make something out of nothing. Can you??? I sure can’t.
And here, we have no right to complain, possibly, as Kim was asking, when compared to what they have we have EVERYTHING.
Honestly, you should actually read it and think before you start jumping the gun.
What makes #6 racist? It’s sad that one would have to ask. To assert that a group of people have something fundamentally wrong with them such that it is impossible for them to improve their lives without the help of another group of people is patently bigoted.
I’m not accusing anyone of racism. What I said is that what was written was racist and that Mary should have done a little more thinking about root causes before she embarked on her response to George.
And BTW isn’t there a scripture that says something to the effect that all things are possible with the Lord?
#6 doesn’t saying there is anything wrong with them. It says there is something wrong with the situation/environment in which they live. Big difference.
So they don’t possess the human capital necessary for changing their situation/environment? Without recognizing it you are making a huge assumption about what is required for marginally improving the situation in genuinely poor countries and about the timeline in which to do it.
I didn’t say they have anything wrong with them. You assume that’s what I meant. I don’t think that at all. What I am saying is that the situation, be it the government, the economony or the social situation has created such poor, desperate circumstance that they have been robbed of necessary resources. Not the people themselves. Obviously not. They work very very hard with nothing, or next to nothing. WE CANNOT COMPLAIN when there are people who have so much less than we have.
I did not say it was irrevocably impossible, I said it was impossible for them, in many cases, to make things better when they don’t have the resources. You can’t get an education without a university or a way of learning, you can’t build a house when there are no materials to do so, you can’t grow food without seeds. George seems to think they can make food out of air. That’s what I am saying.
Of course things are possible with the Lord. That’s why it’s OUR responsibility to be that possibility. In our western arrogance we assume we have all the answers.
Again, you assume with arrogance yourself that you knew what I was talking about. You should read carefully and think about it before making such blatant assumptions.
You certainly were accusing me of racism. I was thinking about the root causes. Another thing I am saying is that we cannot compare the poverty in western first world nations to the poverty in third world nations. It’s not the same thing.
Of course they have the ability to do it, but that ability only makes a difference if the environment is beneficial. One cannot buy groceries for example—no matter how much one is physicially able to do so—unless one has money to purcahse them.
I would recommend reading two specific chapters out of PJ O’Rourke’s book “Eat the Rich.” One is titled “How to make nothing out of everything” and is the Cliff’s Notes story of Tanzania and the other is “How to make everything out of nothing” and is the same brief story of Hong Kong. It’s a 30,000 foot (10,000 meters for the IMS impaired) view of the real issues involved but it’s a good starting point.
Will reading them help us understand how you managed to extracts racism out of an non-racist comment?
The word can is a conjugation of the infinitive “to be able.” When Mary writes, “These people CANNOT raise their standard of living” she is making the claim that “these people” do not have the ability to improve their lot in life. Ability is an innate characteristic. She then goes on to emphasize that “these poeple” improving their own lot in life is impossible without ever qualifying it with a reason which leaves one to connect her first statement about “these people’s” abilities with subsequent satements about the futility of self directed improvement. I didn’t have to assume anything about what you wrote. I just took it at face value. If what I just outlined is not what you meant then you should have, as I suggested, taken a little more time to discuss root causes (as you attempt to do in #30).
I find it disheartening that Mary seems to be so focussed on material resources as THE necessary catalyst for people improving their lives. History would not bear out that focus. She seems so intent on discounting human ingenuity. I can’t believe someone who home-schools her own children would write, “You can’t get an education without a university…” Mary further writes, “you can’t build a house when there are no materials.” To what specific materials are you referring? That statement is so ethnocentric it hardly requires a response. Regarding food, I ask Mary if she knows what percentage of Hong Kong’s food is produced by it’s residents? I ask Mary if she has even the smallest inkling of an understanding of the concept of comparative advantage?
“Ability is an innate characteristic.”
It is also something that is determined by external factors (i.e. “the quality of being able to do something, especially the physical, mental, financial, or legal power to accomplish something”). Some can have a characteristic to accomplish something yet not have the financial resources to do it. One cannot buy groceries for example—no matter how much one is physically able to do so—unless one has money to purchase them.
Either way, that’s really stretching someone’s words in order to extract racism from them. Certainly not face value meaning.
I’ll leave it to Mary to address points directed at her.
Paul
Again you misunderstand me and I won’t continue trying to explain my point. You consistently misrepresent what I am saying and meaning.
I am referring to extreme examples. As far as I know, Hong Kong does not fit that scenario. Unless of course the media is lying to us? Things are not as desperate as they seem? Are you saying that people without food or clean water or medical resources, or land or homes are able to find these things without foreign aid? Are you saying that the efforts the Church is making in these nations are unnecessary? We shouldn’t offer our help?
You seem to have all the answers, then tell me please why these nations aren’t following your counsel.
What makes you think that living in a third world country is so bad? Have you ever thought that perhaps the people there prefer their society over ours?
Why do you assume they are poor if they do not have the things you have?
If they wanted to live like Americans do, they can. It is within their grasp.
I clicked on some thing Kim had a link to about a guy who started out with a paper clip and ended you trading it unti he bought a house. And I beleive he was in Canada. Imagine that?
If you want you, you can get it.
The society we live in is the society we/our ancestors built. The society third world countries have is what they built.
Speaking about money – Do you realize the current money system in use today is really just a figment of our imagination? What is the ultimate value or trade for a dollar. Nothing. It is not worth any certain amount of gold or silver or even 8 cows for a wife.
Regarding the slaves – I do not know the number of slaves the plantation had but it did employ over a 100 white men. It had the first cotton gin and cotton mill in the area.
What brought it down was not the war or taxes or loss of slaves. What brought it down was whiskey. We had several generations that did not work.
Speaking of Racism – Mary likes to imply that I am a racist. When I was a child and we would go to visit the grandparents, and go into town with them, there were white bathrooms, colored bathrooms, white drinking fountains and colored drinking fountains. When my grandfather passed away, there was a very large number of blacks who attended his funeral. They loved my grandfather. Their parents were the slaves you spoke of. My grandfather risked his life because he provided them with homes and land to live on.
My Great Uncle recently passed away (93) and he gave credit (up till his death) to blacks so they could feed their families.
My parents moved away so I did not live there but I remember going with my grandfather to take christmas food and present to the
blacks and I was treated with great honors for being JB’s grand son.
My wife spends many hours each week helping blacks solved their problems – while the truth about blacks may hurt liberal ears, that does not make a person a racist. A racist hates because of a persons skin colour or some other item.
Back on topic – I truly believe that if you think it takes government to solve the worlds financial woes, then you are a liberal and very much off track with your thinking. If you believe it is up to each person to make a better life for themselves then you are on track with the Lords plan.
MY view of life is that it is what you make out of it.
“I clicked on some thing Kim had a link to about a guy who started out with a paper clip and ended you trading it unti he bought a house. And I beleive he was in Canada. Imagine that?”
And he had to travel all over the US and Canada to do it. He paid all travel costs himself.
“What makes you think that living in a third world country is so bad? Have you ever thought that perhaps the people there prefer their society over ours?”
I didn’t say it is bad, what I am saying is, that in many of those places (not all) the circumstances are such that food, water, medical aid and opportunity for improvement are either not available or very scarce. Have you travelled to such places? I have not, but my sister has and others I know have. In SOME, not all, places, there is poverty that we do not see in any way shape or form, in our countries.
“Why do you assume they are poor if they do not have the things you have?”
What I am saying (why do I need to continue explaining myself when it seems pretty clear and basic) is some people cannot buy food, enough to feed their families, either it is unavailable or they don’t have the means to do so.
“If they wanted to live like Americans do, they can. It is within their grasp.”
Ok, you said it. So tell me how they are able to do this?
“I clicked on some thing Kim had a link to about a guy who started out with a paper clip and ended you trading it unti he bought a house. And I beleive he was in Canada. Imagine that?”
Uh…not sure what this has to do with the topic of conversation, but yes he did. However he travelled from place to place to pick up the items. He had the money and means to do so. So it wasn’t a freebie entirely. And yes, Canada…um, what does that have to do with it?
“Speaking of Racism – Mary likes to imply that I am a racist. ”
Do I? Perhaps I do, show me where I said that?
“My Great Uncle recently passed away (93) and he gave credit (up till his death) to blacks so they could feed their families.”
Not sure why the colour of their skin has anything to do with it. If they were honest and needed it, then I don’t see why it is so commendable either way.
When colour, race, religion or culture isn’t even a part of the equation (making judgements, good or bad, about people) then racism isn’t an issue.
“I truly believe that if you think it takes government to solve the worlds financial woes, then you are a liberal and very much off track with your thinking.”
Of course I don’t think this in its entirety. I believe the government actually has too much control, too much sway too much involvement in people’s lives, especially in our countries. However, there are certain situations where government involvement is needed TO A DEGREE. Since THEY have created the problems, they need to help fix it.
“MY view of life is that it is what you make out of it.”
Agreed, when the ability is there. For some, they need to be given a leg up. Or do you think all the programs the Church has set up to help people should be completely disbanded?
Teach a man to fish. If he doesn’t know how, or doesn’t have the means to learn, he can’t do it.
George (or Bill, whatever) the only people I think you are racist towards are Muslims.
I stumbled onto this website, and can’t really believe it. Just go out and get an education? Improve their lives? Well, my husband grew up in a third world county, and was able to pull himself out of poverty, because he was lucky enough to receive a scholarship from a wealth person in the US. His family had no money for that. They sometimes went for days without food. We send his family very little money now, by American standards, but they are able to live in a way they never could before. His family is very intelligent, hard workers, who do everything they can to “improve their situation”. However, the jobs just are not there. I find it completely racist to call my in-laws lazy because they have not been able to change their situation. We as American’s cannot ignorantly and arrogantly pretend that we understand anything of their situations.
Mary writes:
“Hong Kong does not fit that scenario.”
Please, Mary, list for me Hong Kong’s available natural resources. The reason O’Rourke titles his chapter on Hong Kong “How to make everything out of nothing” is because Hong Kong literally has zero natural resources to utilize (and never has). What little land exists is not arable nor does it contain resources. It does not have a natural port. Seventy years ago Hong Kong was just as poor and uneducated as every other region of China. It was human ingenuity that allowed Hong Kong residents to build an economy that affords them a standard of living second only to the US (yes, it’s higher than socialist Canada). Did Hong Kong do it with massive amounts of foreign aid? No. The colony didn’t even get aide from good ole jolly England, the Mother country. What the people did was invite foreigners to invest in their people and then rewarded that investment with hard work and human ingenuity. Why can’t other poeple in other nations with greater resources (i.e. Tanzania) realize the same life and do it without vast (or even small) amounts of foreign aide– aide that routinely fosters corruption and rarely, if ever, provides relief of suffering?
I’ll say it again, Mary needs to move beyond the parochial idea that prosperity is a function of material resources. Ask any economist what the preconditions are for a strong, sustainable economy and you’ll get the same set of answers– none of which include even the slightest reference to material resources.
p.s. my in-laws can’t just “move somewhere better”. We could not even get them a travel visa to come into the states for our wedding. And that was with the financial support of a whole American family, offering to pay and promising they return home. Not enough evidence for the feds. And they can’t just move here without a lot of money and years and years on a waiting list. My husband tried for quite awhile before he got here, and he only got here because he had a skill (he is a teacher). You may be able to move and live wherever you want, but it is not an option for everyone.
Does this mean they won’t be able to see your baby when “it’s” born?
Maren
“We as American’s cannot ignorantly and arrogantly pretend that we understand anything of their situations.”
You said it. Exactly what I am trying to say. And you (well your husband) has first hand knowledge. We as Canadians and Americans are not able to truly understand this, nor should we judge them by our standards.
Well, I was excited to see this interesting topic and discouraged to see it buried under right wing neocon blather. Too bad.
Anyway, to address your question, Kim: No, of course you shouldn’t feel guilty. Being a first-worlder is an accident of birth, and there’s nothing wrong with being comfortable in your life. Given the choice between asceticism and ease, most people choose ease.
I think a big step in easing any guilt you may have, though, is mindfulness – a very real awareness of what you are buying/using/consuming, and why. I don’t do that nearly enough, and I think if I did, I would not only feel better about the stuff I *do* have, but I would also not have so much stuff.
Overall, I think y’all are pretty exemplary folks. Mary’s home with the kids, right? You bike to work even, I thought. You are living a more simple life than many of us in the gogogettherefastgottagetmore race.
If you want to do more to simplify, you can. If you don’t, that’s fine, too, because you’re already doing stuff along those lines.
Wow, you’ve been a long term reader, Ann. I biked to work for only a year before my arthritis got the better of my knees (it would have been fine if I didn’t have a killer hill to attack both ways). Now I take the bus.
I almost lost it once in HP group because one brother said he couldn’t afford to pay tithing and others piped in that they couldn’t either. I served my mission in Korea several years ago. I shared with them a discussion I had with a poor brother who was honored to pay tithing. He lived in a shack with a dirt floor and tin roof. I asked how it was that he could pay tithing in his poverty and they couldn’t pay in their affluence. These winey rich Americans couldn’t give up their soda pop, cable, and other luxuries to be able to afford to pay tithing. The difference is one’s mindset. We were recently shopping for a new car. We priced a Dodge Durango. I could support a missionary for the monthly payment. So, we contacted the mission home and bought a used car from them. I sent the remaining money on a real mission. I donate the difference between the Durango and the used car to the missionary fund. I could have self-justified buying the Durango, but something told me that I could do more with what I’ve been given.
My ancestors lost all they had just before the War of Northern Aggression. They were outed as Abolitionists. The mob gave them the choice of leaving with just the clothes on their backs or being hung. My father died when I was young. When my mother finally remarried, he was an alcoholic. I’ve been poor. But not as poor as some I saw on my mission. But even in my poverty, I could pay my tithing.
We here in North America have been blessed with affluence so that we can in turn bless the world. Even before the PEF was announced, I sent money on a regular basis to reputable groups to help build up the third world. I recently went through my closet and sent suits, ties, etc. to a Sister in the Marshal Islands because some of the members there don’t come to church because they feel they don’t have suitable clothes.
If we look around and make a real effort, we can find ways to bless the entire world. One of the first steps though is to live below our means. But too often we buy into the American entitlement philosophy that we have a right to wallow in our affluence. Well you do have a right to spend your money as you see fit. You also have an obligation to bless others and to lift them up, not just figuratively by sharing the gospel, but literally by sharing the wealth.
No, I’m not a Democrat or a Communist. But I have vowed to consecrate all I have.
Dear George:
“If they wanted to live like Americans do, they can. It is within their grasp.”
Interesting theory. How ’bout you go live in Darfur for a while and help them all just fix it right up, then come back and tell us how it went, mmmmK?
Oh, and your wife spends many hours “helping blacks solve their problems?” Not just people, but specifically blacks? How nice that the great white lady is willing to help all them poor black folk. With comments like that, I’m just incredibly amused that MARY was called racist on this thread. That’s priceless.
Dear Paul: Here’s a big helping of WHATEVER for you. Aren’t there right wing crazy boards you could be hanging out on? (You know the kind – they worship Rush instead of Christ?) Some of us like to read this blog without vomiting in our own mouths a little.
More importantly than just blacks she helps New Orleans Blacks who have created a crime spree all on their own.
If Maren does not mind, what country is your husband from?
While I am glad your husband found a rich American to pay for his education, I wish I could find one to pay for my children’s education.
How do you justify all the money that was spent to educate your husband and then he gets a low paying job as a teacher? Would not some higher pay job so more money could be sent back to his homeland be a better use of his education?
Did the person who paid for him to be educated expect him to return to his homeland and use it to better his countrymen? If so, is staying in America a waste of his education? Do you stay because of the lifestyle?
Being born in a 3rd world country does not destine one to a life of poverty. It takes vision and hard work to change things.
Floyd the Wonder Dog made me gag with his self righteous @#$%$%^&.
As for Mary and racist. I am not racist towards Muslims. I do not trust them and feel like they are the cause of so much of the evil in the world with their preverted religion. I do not beleive Mary is racist either, naive yes, racist no.
As for Sue, if the people of Darfur wanted to improve their standard of living to be similar to ours, they could do it.
The common thread has always been to give give give give and take take take take and nothing changes.
The USA has a fiat money system. There is nothing that backs our money except us and our hard work. The USA produces money. That is our main export to the world. The world wants our money to buy things with.
Do you really believe the world would be beter off if everyone was given 40 acres and a mule?
“As for Mary and racist. I am not racist towards Muslims. I do not trust them and feel like they are the cause of so much of the evil in the world with their preverted religion. I do not beleive Mary is racist either, naive yes, racist no.”
Naive you can’t accuse me of. Gullible sometimes, yes. But not naive. But then George/Bill, you don’t know me. You just think you do.
“How do you justify all the money that was spent to educate your husband and then he gets a low paying job as a teacher?”
If a teacher is a low-paying job, then sign me up. I’d love to have my salary nearly double.