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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RetiredNow who wrote (248398)	8/31/2005 11:01:22 PM
From: Tenchusatsu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573826

Mindmeld, good response. I already covered the GDP part of the "statistic," but I didn't realize that it also excluded private donations. Now having said that, once again I don't believe in comparing who is more generous. We had this discussion before during the tsunami, and once again we're having this discussion with Katrina. If other countries want to complain about America not being generous enough, then let them. If they don't want to help America out during these times of distress, then that's OK too. We'll get through this with or without their help. We have the means, now all we need is a lot of focus and a little prayer. Tenchusatsu

To: RetiredNow who wrote (248398)	8/31/2005 11:55:13 PM
From: neolib	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573826

1) it's $ given per GDP! The U.S. GDP is huge. So our absolute $ aid probably dwarfs the aid from most, if not all, other countries. Why do you object to normalization? If anything, I would expect higher GDP/person (such as the USA) to be even more generous. So if anything I'd normalize twice, once for GDP and again for population. The other valid approach I can think of would be to multiply the aid given by other countries by the ratio of PPP GDP/USD GDP. One could then normalize by GDP & pop as well.

To: RetiredNow who wrote (248398)	8/31/2005 11:59:04 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1573826

That is a very misleading statistic. There two things wrong with it: 1) it's $ given per GDP! The U.S. GDP is huge. So our absolute $ aid probably dwarfs the aid from most, if not all, other countries. So what? Because of our bigger GDP we can afford to give more and yet smaller nations give a greater percentage of their GDP to aid then we do. In other words, we are not as generous as other nations and its only because we are proportionately so much bigger that the total dollar amount we donate exceeds other nations. 2) Those figures are aid given from our gov't. Reports have shown that American private sector aid and aid from individual American citizens is as much as 10 times what our gov't gives. Do you think the citizens of other nations don't give privately as well? Once again, everyone is always trying to belittle the U.S. and use us as a punching bag. It's bad enough when other countries do it. It's worse when our own citizens do it. No, I am not. I am just trying to make clear what's true and what's not. Americans go around pumping themselves up on how great they are when the statistics do not always support their claims. Its you that comes this thread complaining that no one gives us any respect but that we deserve it because we are so good. Well over and over again, you are shown that we are not the saints we sometimes portray ourselves to be. I am sorry if that truth bothers you. And let me add that I too have been frustrated with the information I have uncovered the past 5 years about an America and American gov't that I did think existed. Unfortunately, the America of legend is mostly legend and its countries like Canada and Norway and Sweden that are more like what we think we are. If we want to be more the stuff of our legends, then we as citizens must demand that from our gov't.