We Are All Going to Die it's Terrible Gawd Help Us

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

A few pieces of information:

1) There are more people living in abject poverty in India than there are citizens of the United States.

2) They don't necessarily like us.

3) Most of the people who work at factories in China producing goods for the US market are working those jobs because the alternative is much, much worse.

4) The alternative is not that far removed from what was called indentured servitude during the colonization of America.

5) Despite the current economic kablooey, the US is still arguably the wealthiest country in the world.

6) People don't like being poor.

7) People with kids doubly don't like being poor.

8) This problem isn't going to go away.

9) Consider how your lifestyle looks to someone making ten dollars a week answering your customer service calls.

I feel that a great many people on here really have no clue exactly how bad living conditions in developing countries are as compared to the United States. The level of poverty in some of these countries has never existed in the United States since its inception. And the truth of the matter is that they will try just as hard to get ahead as any American, will want the same lifestyle as any American, and do not really give two shits whether we like it or not. I see a lot of posts on here which appear to be attempting to dictate the terms of development to developing countries. The truth of the matter is that they don't need to listen to us, and don't particularly care what we think of them. Just something to keep in mind when considering how things are developing right now.

[Oregone]

1. I thought Luxembourg was the wealthiest country in the world

"I feel that a great many people on here really have no clue exactly how bad living conditions in developing countries are as compared to the United States."

Don't discount relative poverty.

[sam sarrha]

6. i was in the peace corps in Africa in 73... i try to tell people.. how bad it can get here,

[aquart]

2. And how is our standard of living helped by giving our jobs to them?

Bringing us down to their level is a good thing in your mind? Because it isn't in mine. We fought like hell for our standard of living. And you know NOTHING of US history if you think we don't know what poor looks like or feels like.

I must be heartless. You tell me about all those poor, jammed together people with all those children and all I want to do is hand out condoms.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

3. Ya, that's bullshit.

Bringing us down to their level is a good thing in your mind?

Yes. I want everybody to be poor, because that would be totally awesome.

We fought like hell for our standard of living.

Pray tell, what exactly have *you* done to fight for the standard of living you have inherited?

And you know NOTHING of US history if you think we don't know what poor looks like or feels like.

No, there is not a goddamn thing in US history comparable to the poverty that exists right now, in India, today.

I must be heartless.

I highly doubt that.

You tell me about all those poor, jammed together people with all those children and all I want to do is hand out condoms.

You're not the only one.

[XemaSab]

4. 10) This is why we're SCREWED on climate change

If every person in the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand went 100% renewable tomorrow, there would still be 5/6 (or more) of the world's population driving cars, burning coal, and doing the same exact crap we'd be abolishing. Yeah, they're doing it less than we are, but again, we can't dictate to them the terms of their development, and putting a wind farm off Cape Cod is all well and good, but telling people in a shack in Rio, Mumbai, or Nairobi that if they want a single light bulb in their hovel so their son can do homework that they need to shell out 5K for solar panels... well... that's not going to go over well.

[wuvuj]

5. IF...improved living standards means....

...greater pollution/use of carbon fuels...then we are ALL screwed....period. The $2000 Tata comes to mind.

One sensible thing for govts to do would be to distribute things like solar ovens...solar powered devices to areas that could use them to reduce pollution output.

And...US and other energy hogs need to get off the dirty fuels ourselves....way off.

But there are so many retrograde idjuts around that will fight any progress of this type tooth and nail....so don't expect a lot?

I was hoping I'd be gone before I saw the Earth trashed like it will be...maybe I'll get lucky.

When you see environmental domes going up surrounded by Blackwater...and people are wearing respirator packs...you should suspect that the end is near.

Food/water/energy shortages...even more weather extremes...refugees...people dying...more resource wars.

Won't happen real sudden-like...if we are lucky...it will be like watching paint dry.

But many will find ways to profit from all this...collecting lots of crap is what life is all about... after all.

Oh happy days.... :shrug:

And NO....I'm not being negative...more like realistic.

Humans...you just gotta laugh at 'em...don't they do the darnedest things?

[XemaSab]

7. How do you cook your food?

:shrug:

[wuvuj]

8. I use natural gas...

...because I'm a natural kind of guy. I probably use less energy than most Americans...but much more than the majority people in the world. I have a garden. I'm also an person who talks too much and doesn't always put my money where my mouth is. Only plus thing I can say is that I might be aware of some of the problems. And I'm not working against what might be some solutions...like contraceptives and alt energy.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

11. Let's say you had a magic wand...

By waving this magic wand, you could instantaneously give every person on earth the same standard of living as an American living slightly above the poverty line, along with all of the incumbent issues and problems associated with our lifestyle. Would you wave this wand? I would venture to say that the vast majority of reasonably informed Americans would NOT wave the wand.

Now, let's give the wand to somebody living in abject poverty in some godawful hell hole in the third world. What do you think they would do would do?

So there's the rub. We're the people who have no need for a magic wand telling the people who've found one that they're not allowed to use it.

[Romulox]

9. Reminds me of what they told white sharecroppers after the war: "At least your not one of THEM!"

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

10. Yes, yes. We're all sharecroppers, living out of our SUVs. n/t

[Deja Q]

12. I don't drive a SUV and never want to. Let's keep blame in complete and proper perspective.

Not to disagree with your OP...

(But also consider the time America took to build itself up, and why other countries are still in squalor. It wasn't because multinational companies didn't offshore jobs. Or add to the world's population.)

Let's help other people without pissing on our own. What is the problem with that...

[Mari333]

13. yes, lets keep the uber rich asshole corporations happy!

who drag their sorry asses overseas to hire people for 20 cents a day and then reap whirlwind profits from fucking over the populations of poor countries.
No, lets tax the shit out of every corporate asshole who outsources even one job to take advantage of slave labour.

[sendero]

14. By all means..

... let's just lower our living standards to that of the third world so everything will be "fair".

[Deja Q]

15. Why not raise the standard worldwide? (or is 1000x the worker clas wage too small for them?)

One post on DU alluded to how one managed to get a job in India after she lost her US job, and it paid handsomely enough.

If that is true, the core problem is the cost of living in the US being too high; the current conditions allowing a gross imbalance of economics.

[Fumesucker]

16. There have been excruciatingly bad living conditions in the US in the past..

The Trail of Tears starts about twenty miles from my home.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_of_Tears

[walldude]

17. Wow I wish I could live in the America you describe....

These people are not CAMPING.



Yeah some of us are better off than our 3rd world counterparts. Some of us are not.

[SammyWinstonJack]

18. This won't sway the OP.

[walldude]

19. Well, the OP is not wrong per se'

but he/she obviously doesn't live in a tent city. Like I said some of us are better off, some aren't.