Power and Responsibility

[Lord de Lyonesse]

I was talking about this in politics i dont know what people think about America and soon possibly China as the giants of politics in this world, do they have responsibility to the rest of the world or do we as "other nations" need to find our own way..

Il set the debate by saying:
As America really has the largest Economy in the world shouldnt it be doing more to help others as a humanitarian gesture...?

[Hunter Makoy]

what? America has done TONS of humanitarian work for a long time. do MORE to help others? shouldn't others have any responsibility of their own? we have given out so many hundreds of billions of dollars in aide, food, everything to so many people, and now that our economy is doing bad u think we should give out more money?

[Lord de Lyonesse]

what? America has done TONS of humanitarian work for a long time. do MORE to help others?

Well your nation is the richest nation on earth...

shouldn't others have any responsibility of their own? we have given out so many hundreds of billions of dollars in aide, food, everything to so many people, and now that our economy is doing bad u think we should give out more money?

I was just debating the issue and no Britain gives the most humanitarian aid and personally i feel a self-help society does more good than relying on others (but again just my opnion) and dont take everything im saying so literally..

[Viking Prince]

I was talking about this in politics i dont know what people think about America and soon possibly China as the giants of politics in this world, do they have responsibility to the rest of the world or do we as "other nations" need to find our own way..

Il set the debate by saying:
As America really has the largest Economy in the world shouldnt it be doing more to help others as a humanitarian gesture...?

What part of charity and ngo do you not understand?

[Hunter Makoy]

.

[Viking Prince]

delete

[Hunter Makoy]

apparently the U.S. gives alot more then UK

US= $21,197 million
UK= $8,839 million

http://www.globalissues.org/article/...hartsandGraphs

[LoZz]

apparently the U.S. gives alot more then UK

US= $21,197 million
UK= $8,839 million

http://www.globalissues.org/article/...hartsandGraphs

thats not really that fair because not only are you economically bigger. in population terms you are bigger as well. 305 million people can give alot more then 62 million....

but i disagree with the OP. americans have no duty as a super power to help any one. thats why its call charity. and they do give alot but its wrong to think or depend on them to fix the worlds problems, thats not there job. nor there responsibility. and to be honest throwing money at problems rarely makes them go away or fixes them, case in point africa. if an american citizen wants to give money to greenpeace or oxfam then good for them, if they dont so what? i dont give to charities and stuff anyway.

[Viking Prince]

apparently the U.S. gives alot more then UK

US= $21,197 million
UK= $8,839 million

http://www.globalissues.org/article/...hartsandGraphs

Add in charity and take a per capita view-- you will still find USA on top, but it will be a bit fairer of a comparison. I would do it for you, but I do not have charity figures for the UK.

The Center for Global Prosperity, from the Hudson Institute, (whose director is Adelman) published its first Index of Global Philanthropy in 2006, which contained updated numbers from those stated above. The total of US private giving, since Adelman’s previous report, had increased to a massive $71 billion in 2004. Page 16 of their report breaks it down as follows:

• International giving by US foundations: $3.4 billion
• Charitable giving by US businesses: $4.9 billion
• American NGOs: $9.7
• Religious overseas ministries: $4.5
• US colleges scholarships to foreign students: $1.7 billion
• Personal remittances from the US to developing countries: $47 billion.

While the majority of the increase was personal remittances ($18 bn in 2000 to $47 bn in 2004), other areas has also seen increases.

[Erik]

apparently the U.S. gives alot more then UK

US= $21,197 million
UK= $8,839 million

http://www.globalissues.org/article/...hartsandGraphs

US gives more to ODA.
But that's one program, and a fraction of the total aid.

This is all aid combined (note it's in BILLIONS, and include the millions you listed)

#1 United Kingdom: $10,700,000,000.00
#2 France: $10,100,000,000.00
#3 Japan: $8,900,000,000.00
#4 United States: $6,900,000,000.00
#5 Germany: $5,600,000,000.00
#6 Netherlands: $4,000,000,000.00
#7 Canada: $2,600,000,000.00
#8 Denmark: $2,130,000,000.00
#9 Sweden: $1,700,000,000.00
#10 Norway: $1,400,000,000.00

source: http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ec...omic-aid-donor

As for the OP: I don't think America being big means they should do more than the rest.
But the rich countries have all promised (at the UN) to give 0.7% of their GDP to foreign aid and so far only Norway, Denmark, Sweden, The Netherlands and Luxembourg have come through on their promise.
America only gives 0.08%, so they should give about 9 times as much.

[Lord de Lyonesse]

America only gives 0.08%, so they should give about 9 times as much.

See, Thanks Erik Im not a Anti-American far from ive been to Main, Memphis, Florida and New York i like america (just i like my native country of Britain better) and why can't i? anyway im not trying to say hey you yanks better pay up else we will just slag you off, no thats just unfair it seems that whoever is the powerfullest country everyone hates them for example i bet 100 years ago eveyone hated us lot!

So i just wanted to create something and i think its worked...

[Hunter Makoy]

US gives more to ODA.
But that's one program, and a fraction of the total aid.

This is all aid combined (note it's in BILLIONS, and include the millions you listed)

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Officia...ent_assistance

As for the OP: I don't think America being big means they should do more than the rest.
But the rich countries have all promised (at the UN) to give 0.7% of their GDP to foreign aid and so far only Norway, Denmark, Sweden, The Netherlands and Luxembourg have come through on their promise.
America only gives 0.08%, so they should give about 9 times as much.

ODA was the only graph that i could actually find. where did u find ur chart from? i the source u gave was only for the ODA site on Wiki. also, on that site it says that U.S. gives .17%. it also shows it as a percentage of GNP, not GDP. (they do list all three tho in the paragraph tho, GDP, GNP, and GNI - the new GNP)

[Erik]

where did u find ur chart from? i the source u gave was only for the ODA site on Wiki.

Oops, I got my links mixed up. (fixed now)
The real source was: http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ec...omic-aid-donor

[Hunter Makoy]

sorry thats not fair Lozz

the OP said 'no, Britain gives the most aid", and i proved him undoubtedly wrong. thats all. i understand about the economies of scale and everything, but the UK just doesn't give as much, not even close. i was just correcting his wild claim.

EDIT: i have the actual chart ready to post, but my internet is so ed up right now i cant get it uploaded.

[danzig]

Probably couldnt have picked a worse timing for a post given current economic conditions Anyway ultimately no the US (or any nation) has no real responsibility to any other nation beyond its friends/allies or in the case of natural disasters. If a country has a drought and people are dropping dead then yes THE WORLD has a responsibility to help but to help people in a country out of poverty or better quality of life? Nope because we got our own people who would/should come first in that regard.

[Strattios]

NO!!! Whenever the US does something good, the world ignores it. Whenever the US is doing something good and something bad happens, the US gets blamed. You guys may not remember, but in the opening days of the US invasion of Afghanistan we dropped giant crates full of supplies (on parachutes). The locals were so desperate that they would gather around. Several people ended up getting crushed. Europe and the Liberal media got mad at the US and said we should stop dropping supplies. And do you guys remember the Tsunami in Indonesia? The US government was the only ones to really get involved, yet they were criticized for not doing enough.

My point is; If individual nations are on good terms with the US and they have some problems then fine, the US can help them. Other than that, the US should ignore everyone. The US gives the most money to the UN () and for what? They are supposed to be the ones helping yet they simple restrict anything the US tries to do. The US owes no one anything.

[Acco]

As America really has the largest Economy in the world shouldnt it be doing more to help others as a humanitarian gesture...?

Just because a nation has the status of the United States' it doesn't mean they have any obligation to give anything to humanity, most countries do this voluntarily. Anyways, money doesn't seem to fix the situation in most places, well, at least not in Africa.

[Erik]

Anyways, money doesn't seem to fix the situation in most places, well, at least not in Africa.

Africa has progressed a lot in the past decades, partly due to aid.
I lived in Africa (Ghana) 25 years ago, and my village didn't even have electricity or running water back then.
Now everybody has internet.

Africa is just not progressing at the same rate that most of the world is.
But what do you expect, when the better offs can't even spare them 10 cents for every $100 they spend themselves?
Africans also face huge tariffs when trying to export anything to the EU or US, that is costing them way more than they can ever hope to receive in aid.

[Lord de Lyonesse]

Just because a nation has the status of the United States' it doesn't mean they have any obligation to give anything to humanity, most countries do this voluntarily. Anyways, money doesn't seem to fix the situation in most places, well, at least not in Africa.

Notice that big question mark? its just a suggestion!

Anyways, money doesn't seem to fix the situation in most places.

And i totally understand where your coming from sadly

[The King Of Peasants]

@Erik are those figures just government? As you might have seen in the post above you by Viking Prince we donate a lot to charity just not through our government.