I had a private request for this topic and I thought that it was quite important.
"Should we be sending foreign aid?"
My simple answer to this question is... NO! This may sound selfish, but the idea of us donating billions of dollars to Cambodian schools when our own schools are looking rather dissmal is pathetic! The whole concept of charity is really just to make us look good. I for one say that politicians need to stop caring about how we look to the rest of the world, and start caring about the well-being of our own people. We have just gained the 'carbon tax' which is the biggest joke in history! We are now being charged twice, just for breathing! Our people are already struggling, with pensioners and the disabled receiving considerably lower income than the poverty line!
The best thing to do for our country and our people, especially during this 'financial crisis', is to use our money to help the people, and once our beautiful nation is thriving, maybe then we can assist the less fortunate. Besides, we give those taxes under the impression that they will be used to better our roads, schools, hospitals, etc... Not to bribe other nations to be our friends. It makes us look like the nerdy, unpopular kid who has to buy friendship rather than earn it!
Unfortunately, the sad truth is that the government is no longer looking after its people, but looking after itself. They are making us as Australians look like the bleeding hearts of the world, and everyone will treat us as such, constantly asking for a hand out. How are they to learn and grow for themselves if they are relying on us all of the time?!?
If you have an opinion, (ANY opinion) on this matter, please leave a comment.
-T.J.
I agree that we need to do more to help our own CITIZENS before we hand out money to other countries. It would appear that these countries are unable to look after their own finances. This is sometimes because of natural disasters, corrupt politicians or through miss-management of their funds.
ReplyDeleteIf our politicians really cared about our own people then they would put a stop to ALL free hand-outs to ex-politicians & their friends! They would also look at a more reasonable income for politicians.
The elderly & those on Disability Pensions are receiving LESS than the amount that has been set to mark the "poverty line". These people have usually worked for many years & have been good citizens & yet the government is willing to let them suffer &, in some cases, die because it is more important to them to be shown to be generous & helpful to foreign countries.
I think the issue here is whether governments should be giving foreign aid. I think that people should support charities and that may or may not include forein ones. But this should be our own decision with our own money. Affectively, the government is forcing us to support the charities it supports through taxing us and then paying foreign aid. I say, tax us less and we'll decide where and who our money goes to. Again, I'd like to emphasise the great work that alot of charities do and how we should help and support those less fortunate then ourselves. However, I think the best sort of charity is not just throwing money at poor people hoping that this will put an end to world poverty. I also don't buy the 'we should help our own country before others' line. We are never going to fix every single problem in our own country so we would never actually get to help out anyone else. I believe we should help this in most need first, which often is people from other countries. Again I emphasise that this should be voluntary and not forced upon us by the government and I would apply this to people in our own country who hold out their hand for the government to feed them without earning it.
ReplyDelete