Subject:
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Re: Why is AIDS such a big deal?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Mon, 8 May 2000 22:37:21 GMT
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Viewed:
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625 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Jeff Stembel writes:
> I am apalled by this heartless attitude. How can you care so little for
> people who are suffering, just because they don't live in your country?
How can you say how much I care or not? I didn't address my personal caring
for those people, I made a statement about how they rate in my priority system
when I'm thinking about how I'd like for my government to spend the money it
takes from me.
If it makes you and other people feel better, let's step out of reality for a
minute.
If I had a zillion zillion zillion dollars (let's say that's a billion times
more money than everyone on the planet has combined - squared) then I would
love to donate almost all of it to fund this and other things to take care of
people in other countries (in addition to my own, although I'd still make sure
my own people were taken care of first, but since I would have unlimited
money, that would just be a technicality).
Likewise, in this fantasy world where I have more money than God, were I to
also have the powers of a god, I would instantly cure all people of all
diseases everywhere, except for truly mean people, and I'd probably cure them
too after I let them suffer for a while, cuz I'd be a capricious, but mostly
nice god.
Now, back to reality.
The money trees don't produce as much as we'd like them to - mine sure
doesn't. The government can only take so much from me and others like me to
fund loads of truly worthless crap in addition to some good things, like
medical research or ... well, whatever it is the government does that isn't a
waste of money.
Given that, given that completely finite amount of money, given that not all
things can be done, I'd put people in the US ahead of those outside of the
US. Sorry, call me a chauvanist, call me a patriot, call me heartless if
you'd like, but if I had the choice between saving 10 Americans or 10
Africans, not knowing anything about them other than their nationality, and I
had to do it with tax money, I'd save the 10 Americans every time.
> The countries suffering the hardest can't afford to do medical research, and
So? Few of us (either individuals or countries) have the funds to do
everything we'd like to do.
> many of them are suffering from major internal strife. This strife, coupled
> with the large number of people infected with AIDS could easily collapse
> these country's governments.
So? I don't subscribe to the USA as the protector of the whole world. I know
some do, but it seems like the more we stick our nose in other places the more
we get slammed for it. For every place that publicly thanks us for the
boatloads of money we dump into "needy" countries (wait - does anyone thank
us?) we get crapped on for trying to do what's "right" in 10 others. Leave us
alone and we'll leave them alone - I think we should try that for 10 years and
see how the rest of the world turns out.
> And don't think for a second that us High and Mighty Americans
> will be unaffected.
Well, I'm not high or mighty, but I'll remain mostly, if not completely,
unaffected by what happens in most parts of Africa.
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Why is AIDS such a big deal?
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| (...) And by saying you don't want our government to spend added money on finding a cure for a disease that is infecting millions of people in another country, it shows you don't hold nearly as much compassion for human life as you should. (...) (...) (25 years ago, 9-May-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Why is AIDS such a big deal?
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| (...) I am apalled by this heartless attitude. How can you care so little for people who are suffering, just because they don't live in your country? The countries suffering the hardest can't afford to do medical research, and many of them are (...) (25 years ago, 8-May-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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