[xerces]

A majority of my college friends are either laid off, unemployed, or employed with their backs to the wall here in NYC.

I'm in PA expanding the size of my parents' garden right now. The situation is becoming ever more grim and it's getting to me. There are homeless people all over the place in NYC and it's just getting worse. I have set aside a small fund to help support my aging parents if one of them gets laid off, but if inflation goes up significantly, I just don't know what will happen.

I figure if I can just finish expanding the backyard garden and put in a drip irrigation system in time, my folks can be much more self-sufficient in food. But sometimes I just think what would happen if my investments tanks further or business gets worse, or I fall ill. There would be no one to take care of them.

Anyone else in my boat?

[gandolf]

Yes approx 4 billion people in Africa,Asia, the middle east, India and numerous other places, This however is nothing new for them it is the way it has always been.

Except most dont have the Irrigation system or the little nest egg. They do have kids though to support them. As long as they are not one of the 10,000 kids that die of starvation in Africa every day, god knows how many elsewhere

Bet that dosnt make the news in america aye.

[startswithearthquakes]

ULTRA MEGAR SUPER FOCKTACULAR DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO0000000000MMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!

[WyoDutch]

Yes approx 4 billion people in Africa,Asia, the middle east, India and numerous other places, This however is nothing new for them it is the way it has always been.

Except most dont have the Irrigation system or the little nest egg. They do have kids though to support them. As long as they are not one of the 10,000 kids that die of starvation in Africa every day, god knows how many elsewhere

Bet that dosnt make the news in america aye.

So can we safely assume that you send a generous portion of your annual salary to help those teeming masses? Or is your compassion limited to on-line whines?

According to Australian government press releases... you Australians dole out a paltry $3.7 billion in development aid... annually. We nasty Americans on the other hand, shell out $21.3 Billion. So stuff that in your didgeridoo, mate.

Personally, I'd like to see that $21.3 Billion spent right here at home to benefit the people who work and pay taxes, instead of going to tribes that periodically grab the old machetes and butcher their neighbors by the hundreds of thousands.

You save a million africans from starvation this year and what do you get next year?.... 2 million starving africans.

[Farknight]

So can we safely assume that you send a generous portion of your annual salary to help those teeming masses? Or does your compassion express itself by criticizing we Americans?

According to Australian government press releases... you Australians dole out a paltry $3.7 billion in development aid... annually. We nasty Americans on the other hand, shell out $21.3 Billion.

Personally, I'd like to see that $21.3 Billion spent right here at home to benefit the people who work and pay taxes.

You save a million africans from starvation this year and what do you get next year?.... 2 million starving africans.

I would also point out that Africa itself is largely to blame for the continent's disastrous situation. Having been there myself many years ago, tribalism runs rampant among people we Amerikans would all call "black" . It is deadly, intense, ancient and embitters every chance for modernization. To be brutally honest, one tribe or ethnic group does not care if another tribe starves right in front of them.

Yes we Americans are rich, lazy and self-absorbed but I also have seen the wells, bridges, dams and rice paddies the Peace Corps have quietly and efficiently constructed in Africa for decades. Unfortunately, many of this has not been maintained or actively destroyed by inter-tribal warfare. So goes brotherhood!

The post-colonial leadership has been largely corrupt, military-backed and acted in self-interest. Yes, colonialism sucked, it always does (ask those in the past in Assyria, Egypt, Macedonia, Greece, Rome, etc.) The nation states are largely false constructs that ignored the massive ethnic fault lines. That said, after the Europeans pulled out, the folks could have united and worked together to build a nation state. Fat chance. He may look like me to you but he is of another tribe so no way, no how do we even speak.

So there is guilt to spread around the globe on everyone's hands. Nobody, anywhere is innocent. The sooner we grow up as a species and face reality the better. Own our own problems and deal with them. Chances of this happening, pretty much zero. Yes, we are all farked.

[turner]

You do realise Aust has a population around 20m v US 300m?

[sparky]

.

Mate.... think of Australia as an archipellago of towns in a sea of sand

90% of the land is death country , but the beaches are OK

the temporary comfort of the last 50 years in the western world was a very temporary , very precious moment

now learn the truth ... nothing has changed ,
we are still married to Misery and she is back and she is mad at us !!

.

[MattSavinar]

Being unemployed, marginally employed, or employed but with your back to the wall has been the norm for just about everybody in America for quite some now. The only exceptions were the hotshots on Wall Street and in the tech sector. But that's changed.

Welcome to the real world.

There's good reason to be scared. I've never been fond of the "fuck the poor they should just stop whining and start working harder like me and my friends in Manhattan" attitude you sported on LATOC but you've got an enviable garden, top notch gardening skills, have enough integrity not to be gamed by an old-flame (I remember that post, it was great stuff) and you definitely seem to recognize the importance of family so I think once you get past a certain psychological "event horizon" about this stuff, you'll be in about as good a position as one can hope to be as your investments tank. (Which they will because pretty much every investment vehicle outside of a very few are going to tank and unless you're in the top 1/10th of 1% of investors in terms of intel and connections, you're almost certainly not going to be in those vehicles.)

[gandolf]

So can we safely assume that you send a generous portion of your annual salary to help those teeming masses? Or is your compassion limited to on-line whines?

According to Australian government press releases... you Australians dole out a paltry $3.7 billion in development aid... annually. We nasty Americans on the other hand, shell out $21.3 Billion. So stuff that in your didgeridoo, mate.

Personally, I'd like to see that $21.3 Billion spent right here at home to benefit the people who work and pay taxes, instead of going to tribes that periodically grab the old machetes and butcher their neighbors by the hundreds of thousands.

You save a million africans from starvation this year and what do you get next year?.... 2 million starving africans.[/b][/i]

Lets do the maths.... You can do maths cant you?

3.7 Billion divided by 20.4 million people = $181 per person
21.3Billion divided by 305.2Million people = $69 per person.

Come on tight wad ante up.

Maybe the good old US could use some of the $580 billion they spend on war each year to help their own people at home.

Or maybe some of the $1.115 trillion they spend on debt repayment and welfare.

Dosnt look to good with nearly 10 Trillion of debt. A bit like Roman Empire that had gorged itself on the worlds riches before it collapsed from within.

[nobodypanic]

You do realise Aust has a population around 20m v US 300m?

well that makes me feel better. africa and human poverty are then obviously china's problem to fix the world over, not mine.

[Dreamtwister]

I would be perfectly happy to spend $69 (or even $181) per year on foriegn aid, if even half of it went to buying condoms.

[turner]

You do realise Aust has a population around 20m v US 300m?

well that makes me feel better. africa and human poverty are then obviously china's problem to fix the world over, not mine.

I was responding to WyoDutch comment, but agree whether $70 or $180 it's still not enough given our relative wealth.

[vilemerchant]

According to Australian government press releases... you Australians dole out a paltry $3.7 billion in development aid... annually. We nasty Americans on the other hand, shell out $21.3 Billion. So stuff that in your didgeridoo, mate.
[/b][/i]

$21.3Billion PRINTED mate, not shelled out, not spent. PRINTED. We Australians run something completely foreign in our budget, it's called a SURPLUS.

Little point bragging about giving away money you DON'T HAVE

[mmasters]

Yup life here in this world is hell. I think hell actually has to be a better place than here, it's really bottom of the barrel.

[gandolf]

I don’t actually disagree with any of the above comments. I also believe that any aid given should only be to assist in making people self sufficient. No point in giving food as it only artificially increases population beyond what can be supported locally then when we get sick of giving they all die. Unfortunately the main reason that people have so many kids is due to the fact that their is no welfare system. People therefore need their kids to support them in their old age. With the high mortality rate they need to keep having them in the hope that some survive. It is a vicious circle.

What I was getting at above was more that this is happening but because the countries are poor and don’t have oil no one really gives a sh!t. Look at Zimbabwe as an example. If they had oil then the armies of the world would have been in there years ago and got rid of Mugabe. As they don’t then no one really cares what happens.

Also, I was watching a Doco on Uganda the other night. It showed farmers bringing food to the local market either on bike or by hand. If there is a total collapse as some predict these people who are currently amongst the worlds poorest would probably become the best off as nothing much would change for them.

[Jotapay]

According to Australian government press releases... you Australians dole out a paltry $3.7 billion in development aid... annually. We nasty Americans on the other hand, shell out $21.3 Billion. So stuff that in your didgeridoo, mate.
[/b][/i]

$21.3Billion PRINTED mate, not shelled out, not spent. PRINTED. We Australians run something completely foreign in our budget, it's called a SURPLUS.

Little point bragging about giving away money you DON'T HAVE

You sound like you might need a little more freedom over there. You got any oil under that ground there?

[vilemerchant]

You sound like you might need a little more freedom over there. You got any oil under that ground there?

Some, but we've already peaked!

[sparky]

.

I can honestly say that after trawling the financial pages .....nobody has a clue as to the FUTURE , ie three days from now
except a sneaky suspicion things will get worst

Even in Australia the cold , icy voice of doom come from politicians mouths .......
" no need to panic .......the fundamentals are sound "
.

[DirtyHowi]

Being unemployed, marginally employed, or employed but with your back to the wall has been the norm for just about everybody in America for quite some now. The only exceptions were the hotshots on Wall Street and in the tech sector. But that's changed.

Welcome to the real world.

There's good reason to be scared. I've never been fond of the "Fark the poor they should just stop whining and start working harder like me and my friends in Manhattan" attitude you sported on LATOC but you've got an enviable garden, top notch gardening skills, have enough integrity not to be gamed by an old-flame (I remember that post, it was great stuff) and you definitely seem to recognize the importance of family so I think once you get past a certain psychological "event horizon" about this stuff, you'll be in about as good a position as one can hope to be as your investments tank. (Which they will because pretty much every investment vehicle outside of a very few are going to tank and unless you're in the top 1/10th of 1% of investors in terms of intel and connections, you're almost certainly not going to be in those vehicles.)

got news for ya my brudda, H1B's screwed over the tech wages, so us poor IT cats aren't exactly pullin down lawyers wages anymore yanno.

[xerces]

Hi guys, I can't believe it's been 3 years since I've last posted!