So, everyone (at least most of my mid-west family) is up in arms over this money for Haiti thing. "Help your own" this "charity starts at home" that... frankly I'm getting a little sick of it. I don't understand not wanting to help fellow human beings in times of great need. I wanted to figure out just how much money we're talking about, on a personal level, that's getting ripped from our hands and handed to those "dumb" "worthless" people in Haiti.
I went looking and came up with some very inaccurate unscientific numbers/estimates. Apparently, the US government is pitching in $100 million in aid to Haiti, sounds like a lot doesn't it? But let's see how much it really is...
I checked WolframAlpha for US population numbers and it came back with 312 million as of 2008. Took a shot in the dark and figured roughly 80% of those people pay tax in some form or another (income, sales, what-have-you). That leaves us with 249,600,000 good-ole red-blooded tax-payin Americans. So, if every one of those people had a jar passed around to them, just how much, one-time, do they need to drop in to reach $100 million?
40 cents (give or take a penny)
Seriously? 40 cents? Now, you may ask "where is that OTHER 40 cents (ie $100 million) going to help our own Americans in need?", and that would be a valid question. But, really? 40 cents is too much to help a third-world country going through unspeakable horrors right now?
We drop in 80 cents per day for our "War on Terror"... yes, that's $200 million PER DAY to fight a war in some other third-world country. I'm not saying I'm against that, just putting it in perspective.
To look at it through cold and logical eyes, if the US doesn't do this they look like total heels to the rest of the world. How could the most powerful, richest country in the world where their people drive huge vehicles, live in mansions, and literally eat like kings not give one penny to help those poor people who are left with nothing? How could they!? Please hold on and turn the HATE dial to 11.
How far off the coast of Florida is Haiti? About 200 miles. Sounds like a spawning ground for Al-Qaeda right on our doorstep. Is it worth 40 cents to keep that from happening? Even if you don't care one bit about those "dirty people" down there, that's gotta sound like a deal. Right?
All this just to say, chill out people, it's 40 cents. How much change do you have sitting in your car? I gave $50 to aid Haiti - that's like 125 times what everyone is so angry about.
Actually, I put in $50.40. And that still doesn't feel like enough...
