Bitter, not better.

There are 12.7 millions Americans officially unemployed and it is estimated that another 86 million of working age are out of work and just not reporting in and collecting unemployment anymore. So 200,000 versus nearly 100,000,000. And I should be worried about Africa why?

I don't remember anyone complaining about US and Europe offering free trade agreement to developing countries. In fact, GSP and such are usually critized because they focus on products marginal to developing economies and not on their strengths (agricultural production), so no country would wish them to end but to make them run deeper. I also doubt that African textile producers are in any way competitors to US textile producers, they probably compete with other developing countries, which might now enjoy the advantage of duty free exports to the US.

You know, I went to knoxville a few months ago to help hand out food stuffs to people living in a tent city there.

All of them USED to have homes and jobs, now they live in tents in a campground. 100s of tents there.

No drugs, booze problems, and full families.. parents, kids, grandparents. It is sad.

So, please, do not take this the wrong way, but we got our own problems, and my hunch is, the world does not care about ours, so forgive me while I reserve my compassion for my neighbors.

Why do those American families deserve some form of divine intervention more than Africans?

Perhaps you don't understand.

Unemployed in the USA =/= unemployed in Africa

If I need to elaborate, I will, but suffice to say they are not comparable.

And the reason to care is that all that needs to be done is re-authorize an existing trade agreement. It comes at almost no cost to us. In fact, it comes at zero cost. It's just duty-free importing.

If you want to talk about needs of the many and the few, let me frame it like this:

If we don't pass this, we will be enriching by a slight margin a few public sector employees because of a negligible uptick in gov't revenue. If we do not, 200,000 people will fall back below the poverty line. Small matter where they live, this is a no-brainer.

@ulytau - no one is complaining. The complaint is that the free trade agreement is not being renewed. The other complaint, yes, is that they target mostly useless commodities for the developing world, but in this specific case it is useful, and should be extended. I can't quite tell if you're agreeing or disagreeing with Draugnar lol.

Anyway, the broader point is exemplified by good old Draugnar's sentiments - which is that it's bullshit that people give so few shits about Africans. It's like some kind of knee-jerk reaction.

@Draug, those unemployed americans arent dying of aids malaria and starvation generally. In fact most are collecting govt unemployment and sitting around bitching about being more valuable than a 9-5 McDonalds job.

My honest opinion is that if you cant identify who needs help most in the world then your probably selfish and will just pick your own citizenry or some other undeserving sect of society to receive blessings, (IE tax cuts for wealthy 1%-ers)

BB shows you what you dont know about what is going on here. More people no longer collect any benefits than are actually on unemployment.

If you fel obliged to help those people in Africa, feel free, but I will help the ones I can see in front of me first. These people are in my community, and just like those people in Africa, need help.

It doesnt mean they are more deserving. just more readily in your presence. And i'm very well aware that unemployment benefits are declining but the ranks of underemployed and overqualified is at an all time high. people are literally going from 40,50, even 60,000 a year salaries (lawyers, tech jobs, and major companies) to 12 dollar an hour wages, high credit card debts and other issues.

So play me a violin. At least they aren't dead and starving man get real.

Let me, uh, I dunno, re-state exactly what I said already:

This is not a case of sending billions in aid. This is a case of signing a paper and extending an agreement. Why would you not?

What is up with everyone dumbshit false dichotomy of "if I care about poor Africans, that must mean I don't give a rat's ass about good ole Americans! And I care about Americans more, because they live closer to me, obviously"

The longer I exist on the internet the more I begin to wonder: is it me, or is it you? That is, is it that no one in the fucking world has any reading comprehension (or patience to read posts and articles) or is it that my own posts are incomprehensible. Obviously a mix of both, but what accounts for the shocking display of ignorance and misunderstanding? It's a persistent issue.

I honestly don't see how the livelihoods of Africans should be a more pressing concern than the livelihoods of out of work and underclass Americans. Obviously, passing a trade agreement is good for both sides, and I'm not arguing that; however, as an American, I'd rather see money and political aid going to help impoverished Americans than foreigners, regardless of whether he is Congolese, Vietnamese, Asian, or Cro-Asian.

Its still human beings. we are not one country we all have a conscience and hopes for a better life. Is this about helping white people or helping Americans, is it about helping those most in need or helping people with less than average lives. because that's the distinction, unless your talking about going to the slums of East Saint Louis and helping that community, were talking about blue collar white people who somehow deserve another bailout.
I hate to play the race card but it sounds like this is just a bunch of people pandering to help white folks...

And finally, jumping off of brainbomb's post, whether they collect government benefits is hardly the point. At the end of the day, you either live in a rich country, or a poor country. A poor man here is better off than a poor man in a poor country. This is because he has access to far fewer resources. Not everything is about your own net worth.

I'm not exactly rich, but I benefit hugely from a well-functioning government and rich population that surrounds me.

Crowd-funding to offer a poignant single example, only works in countries where people actually have money to begin with. This is the country where one woman who gets bullied and berated is given almost half a million dollars out of sympathy. Somehow I don't think anyone in Togo is getting similar monetary sympathy from other Togolese.

Amen

@Brainbomb - I doubt that for many of the people on this site it's about race. For some in the West, perhaps, but not many. Instead, people are attached to the idea of proximity as a conveyor of moral worth. The idea is that the person directly in front of me suffering deserves my assistance more than the person suffering behind a wall.

If the cases were equal on face, I could understand that line of thinking. A cheap example: Person A is being mugged directly in front of me and will die if I do not assist. I also know that Person B is one alley over and is getting mugged in exactly the same situation. I can only be sure of saving one of them.

In this case, there is no shame in saving Person A. But what is Person A is just some punk who can't find his glasses, and Person B is a someone getting raped by a gunman? Proximity ceases to have any moral meaning. Indeed, it has no moral meaning at all, unless you're an animal.

Also I didn't notice your huge logical error before, Draugnar, but, everything else aside, yes there may be millions of unemployed families in the US, but there are many many more millions of unemployed families in Africa. That tends to happen when most African countries have unemployment rates hovering around 40%

I live near Knoxville, I go to this tent city often. I do not care who is there, they are jsut people in a LOT of need, without homes, living in tents, no insurance, with children also.

I often refuse to give to any charity. I know that less than 20% of that money ever directly gets to the source, so I often do these things directly.

BB, there are some blacks in the tent city, but this region (where I am from, and have a great ffinity for) is mostly white, but, that does not stop me from giving to anyone at the tent city.

We will cook an entire pig, and have a pig roast, with all the sides, and give you food packages, or cook like 100 chickens, and bring them up, etc.

We help our community. I am not driving 10 hours to help needy people, when I have needy people 30 minutes from me. Someone in St Louis can do that.

So, just to quickly crunch the numbers for you, we'll be generous and say it's not 40% but 30%. What's 30% of 1 billion (pop. of Africa)? 300,000,000.

Oh that number looks familiar. Where have I seen it before. Oh right. That's the same as the number of every man, woman, and child in the United States of America.

However I should add for the sake of people like Stressedlines that just because all of this is true does not mean that people in need in the United States or elsewhere should not be helped. And just because this is a rich country does not mean there are not desperately poor people here, even by worldwide standards.

However if you're talking in the aggregate, there is no contest.

"I hate to play the race card but it sounds like this is just a bunch of people pandering to help white folks..."

Then dont play the race card because you make yourself sound like an ignorant asshole looking to start an argument, rather than a debate. "George Bush hates black people!" Fuck you, brainbomb. This was never a racist debate, it's about the merit of foreign aid versus domestic aid.

"A poor man here is better off than a poor man in a poor country."

It's all relative. A poor American would be the wealthiest man on the block in Togo, but don't act like life here is amazing. Poverty is a terrible thing, regardless of its country of origin, and need is need. A poor American needs different things than a poor African. Like Stressed said, we help our own community, especially in our current economic climate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcdtVD8X1-A

Seems to address the remarks by Stressedlines and the majority of people who feel that the bare minimum is going to take away the guilt of the perfect life.

I'm sorry but life is pretty amazing here even for a homeless man. You all keep talking about the people suffering without jobs but you havent mentioned any raw data, like the 27% unemployment rate in the black community, or poor wages for illegal Mexican workers living here.....your very clearly talking about blue collar white people struggling to find ways to get their high paying jobs back. Don't confuse this as a debate about helping the people "really" in need even in our own country. Your the ones making the distinctions by sin of omission.

Kind of sad to see so much indifference towards people less fortunate than ourselves. Modern society seems to have made us so cold and hardened. I question if people with so little sympathy towards our brothers can truly be said to be alive. I'm disappointed in some of you guys. If you are really unwilling to help, you could at least have the courtesy to not try to shout down the people who are trying to help. Kudos to Thucydides for brining this to our attention.

I don't know what was so obscure about my post. The West is taking flak for their trade policy because it is not liberal enough so taking away those good treaties that are already in place is a regression to an even worse state.

@uly - I wasn't complaining about the agreement or worried that a small African textile induistry would make a difference to us one way or the other. I was just asking why I should be so concerned with less than 1,000,000 people (200,000 familes) when we have 10 times that easily at risk and hurting here in the US.

BRAIN BOMB, please. You are trying to crucify me for helping homeless people? Really? And I do not help by putting a dolalr in a damn coffee cup, and alking away, I help directly. I try to find these people jobs, Cook large meals, deliver food and clothes packages.

Really BB< you ARE trying to make it racist, I just noticed you pointed out the 'black and mexican' problems

i was born in Applachia. I live in Appalachia. And you want me to run off to St Louis, or some other area, to prove what?

i do not have to prove anything to you, but you 100% made this racist,. Plugging the race card is shitty, when all I really do is try to hel[p people in MY COMMUNITY, and yes, even the black ones.

OK, Thucydides, thank you for sharing this. But could you please link to more information? This blog expresses outrage and xplains the basic problem. But it does not discuss why this is happening, who is trying to change it, who is opposing it and why, or any of that. It is hard to come to a decision to take what little action I could (write my Congressmen I guess) without knowing more.

Very well. I apologize, you are a good person I admit. Far better than myself even, so I commend you for your service to your community. I don't do anything as great as that at the moment, unless you count teaching in an inner city community college as helping young people with less chances?

@BB - Do you get paid for your teaching? Altruism isn't altruism when it's paid for.