And exactly how many billions have we thrown into the black hole of African dictatorial coffers? It's amazing how someone so well traveled could be so naive.
foreign aid: "an excellent method for transferring money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries."
I want the US to take care of our own people first, then we can look abroad, we have tent cities, super expensive healthcare, and jobs that are paying less and less if you can find them.
Hate the wealthy? Give to the less fortunate? "Even the playing field" ?
Here are average yearly incomes of several countries:
Brazil $8,135
Venezuela $11,444
India $1,054
China $3,212
USA $45,835
To even the playing field, we must "de-develop the USA" , redistribute the wealth globally (take your income) vis cap and trade and other measures. Socialism is taking American money and giving it to poor countries.
"For 30 years, the fertility rate of Europe has been below the 2.1 children per woman necessary to replace a population. In Russia and Ukraine, a million people disappear yearly. In Western Europe, the passing of the native-born goes on quietly, as Third World peoples come to fill the empty spaces left by the aborted and unconceived."
"In every Western nation, government is growing beyond the capacity of taxpayers to bear. Deficits and debt are surging. Not enough children are being born to replace parents. The immigrant poor who consume more than they contribute are coming to take the empty places. Seniors and elderly are growing as a share of the population. Companies are saying goodbye to the West and moving offshore to low-wage lands."
The recession of 2008-09 has undercut one of the most destructive social theories that came out of the 1960s: the idea that the root cause of crime lies in income inequality and social injustice. As the economy started shedding jobs in 2008, criminologists and pundits predicted that crime would shoot up, since poverty, as the "root causes" theory holds, begets criminals. Instead, the opposite happened. Over 7 million lost jobs later, crime has plummeted to its lowest level since the early 1960s.
The 1960s offered a challenge to the poverty-causes-crime thesis. Homicides rose 43%, despite an expanding economy and a surge in government jobs for inner-city residents. The Great Depression also contradicted the idea that need breeds predation, since crime rates dropped during that prolonged crisis.
@Sexymetroman Yes, I agree get rid of the weak DNA! The current congress and
Obama as president clearly show you have made a great point! TIME TO VOTE OUT THE WEAK DNA!!!!!! EUROPE SHOULD DO THIS TOO!!! JUST SAY NO TO WEAK DNA!!!!
You can't make people embrace something they really do not seem to want.Wealth is earned by those who sacrifice and study how to become wealthy it generally takes a lot of hard work.Just like you cannot make people lose weight or want to be healthy you can only encourage them and try to teach them the skills so that they can help themselves.Liberals always want to redistribute some elses wealth which is about a smart as trying to redistribute some elses health,fitness level,desire or education.
- In the USA, the poor have debt. The rich have savings and investments.
- In the USA, the poor look for quick pleasure. The rich delay pleasure (and enjoy tons later).
There is a reason the poor became poor in the first place. Teach them why and how not be poor. Inspire them.
Teach them that success is based on habits and hard work.
Greed and envy are traits of the poor, not the rich. Most rich people give alot of money away. My family does. My uncle does. My dad's millionaire boss does.
haha, your simplistic view of economics is kind of funny. You clearly don't have any rich friends that inherited millions and live off the of interest, indulging every pleasure they can think of.
As far as the comment of about poor people's debt, you're just describing what it means to be "poor". You're not answering *why* they have debts. The pleasure comment is just flat out wrong.
I agree with him. I can't understand the mindset of people like Glenn Beck and his Tea Parties. What is so great about having so many people with no health insurance? Most people are just living pay check to pay check and need a safety net.
I think it is great that people start to talk about the matter.
Personally (and I am sure many of you will put me off as radical or communist), I think there should be a natural limit as to how much one is allowed to own and, above all, "earn". Quite frankly, with about 10 times the average persons' assets or earnings, you're bloody damn rich. Could anyone be deserving more? Please, tell me why.
Helping those who ask for help is a doing good deed.
But responsibilty of care for poor ppl lies in the hands of government of each country. Rich country could ask these gov't to provide the basic necessities of life.
Many missionaries and charitable organizations don't always spend money on "good cause" and also there are incidents of abuse of poor children by these visiting missionaries .. word of caution here.
its funny to read all of the people who sit and make excusses for why we should accept poverty even in our own country. they will sit their and tell you about how they should work harder etc... when the wealthy refuse to pay a individual a livable wage and choose to go out to the third world to capitalize on child labor and .05 a day wages
Part of me is not surprised that rich Brazilians can't travel freely through Rio or Sao Paolo because they fear being kidnapped and held for ransom (they travel by helicopter or bullet proof car). After kidnapping someone, a gang will often cut off one or both of their victim's ears and send it to the family with the ransom note. There is a thriving niche plastic surgery that specializes in fashioning outer ears from rib cartilage. Ain't unfettered capitalism and gross inequality grand?
The corporations loan money to these poor countries for infrastructure than repossess the same infrastructure through default and the poor country leaders profit from the same. Then they think Damn Americans, capitalist pigs!
It's sad...but they totally miss the message. Did they even get what Rick Steves was saying about the mindset of the Swiss?
I'm just puzzled by this in our country. I totally understand wanting to be wealthy. I just don't get the part where we don't give a damn about those who are starving and living in desperation. It's like, "It's not my problem". What a short sighted society.
Plenty of gated communities here too. High fences. Security gates and guards patrolling. I see quite a gap right here between rich and working poor. The non-working poor are living well-- nice housing, food banks, clothing banks. They drive newer cars than the working poor.
The "happy to pay high taxes" folks- probably have to cheat on their taxes to stay ahead or just stay even. My friends in Mexico have to do that.
If you want to donate higher taxes, go ahead. Don't force the rest of us.
The whole idea of money is an invention, product of the "modern" society. The same modern society that provides you with high quality education, modern medicine, technology and work is only asking you to give back part of your work, so other people can benefit as much as you did.
If you don't like paying taxes, you can always go live to Somalia.
If we really have compassion for the poor, we must see that the gap between the rich and poor is irrelevant. What we REALLY care about is the absolute level of the wealth of the poor. Do they have food, clothing, shelter and health care? How much of it do they have on an ABSOLUTE level, not a relative level.
Socialism tends to make the poor worse off, even as it reduces the rich-poor gap. Free markets tend to make the poor better off on an absolute basis, even as it increases the gap.
seriously...travel is IMPORTANT...0:36....thats bullshit, americans are opportunistic parasites that unknowingly thrive on the suffering of others while keeping themselves distracted in a bubble of pop culture and a facade of "christian morals."
look at what the products of this morally bankrupt society have done to our own economy...those fukrs shud be made an example of, no mercy for the corrupt and opportunistic
@ndyt That like saying you would rather spend money on the poor, instead of for poor causes to make a few rich... You are not giving them what they want, good job
In Saigon in the late 1960's, military & government buildings and hotels occupied by foreigners were ringed by security and huge concrete obstacles (often as macro flower pots, for the aesthetics), and when I retired from government service, in the U.S. midwest, two years ago, our building was ringed by security and huge concrete flower pots.
If your hometown is a major city, go look at the government buildings. Whadya see?
I don't understand why the goal is to go out and improve the world image of America by donating money. That isn't the same, as paying higher taxes to provide more services to everyone equally in that society. In America we are all for keeping everything for ourselves, never really stopping to think about others. We don't want to think about those who are left out in our own society.
All monopolies are coersive in defense of their own wants, are they not?
Should government be different? They should. Are they? No. why not? Because they are run by people who care more about political agendas and their own personal wants than about the good they are supposed to be working on.
The politicians are a reflection of the people. From Obama to Boehner, to Foxx, To Barney Frank. If the politicians suck, maybe, just maybe, the people have something to do with that.
This comment has received too many negative votesshow
The gap between rich and poor is irrelevant.
If you had 10 dollars and your neighbor had 100 dollars. Would you trade that situation for one in which you both had a penny?
No. That would be stupid. Yet that is the philosophy of the Marxist, Liberal, Democrat, Progressive, etc. which is funny, because they are neither pro liberty nor progressive in the literal sense.
bradwatson - In Switzerland the surgeon makes more money than the janitor - it's just the gap isn't as drastic. In spite of the taxes Switzerland continues to have surgeons.
Stealing money from one person to give to another is injustice.
Voluntarily giving money to someone else is fair. See the difference?
Being productive is what creates wealth. When you forcefully redistribute wealth, there is no incentive to be productive. There is only incentive to live off the productivity of others, or to leave the country. This is why socialism leads to poverty.
You don't need to own a house. I bought a house. Now it's worth less. I would have been better off renting.
You don't need to graduate from university. I have a masters degree from a prestigious school. I make much less than my friend who never went to university.
More than anything, to succeed, you need knowledge. You can get it from books, the Internet, friends, family, & basically anyone you come in contact with. If you can't afford university, that doesn't mean you can't succeed.
Yes, what travel teaches you is that the more individual liberty the people have, the less poverty there is. Where there is great poverty one needs only look at how oppressive the government is to find the cause.
There's a difference between "acquiring" wealth & "creating" wealth. One can acquire wealth by stealing. But that just moves wealth from one hand to another. It doesn't "create" wealth. To create wealth, people must produce useful products & services that people want & need. Not only does this create products that make our lives better, it also increases the buying power of everyone's money, & allows more savings which is reinvested in technology that further increases productivity & wealth.
But you are right. People cannot create wealth as easily in different countries because each region has a unique history & government. Guatemala has been plagued with dictators, countless military coups, instability, socialist revolutionaries, CIA plots, guerrilla warfare, & genocide. I feel deep sympathy for innocent Guatemalan civilians. As long as they are oppressed by governments, the fruits of their productivity will be destroyed. Their efforts wasted.
And exactly how many billions have we thrown into the black hole of African dictatorial coffers? It's amazing how someone so well traveled could be so naive.
foreign aid: "an excellent method for transferring money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries."
WideWorldOfWisdom 10 months ago
I want the US to take care of our own people first, then we can look abroad, we have tent cities, super expensive healthcare, and jobs that are paying less and less if you can find them.
wolftreetree 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Hate the wealthy? Give to the less fortunate? "Even the playing field" ?
Here are average yearly incomes of several countries:
Brazil $8,135
Venezuela $11,444
India $1,054
China $3,212
USA $45,835
To even the playing field, we must "de-develop the USA" , redistribute the wealth globally (take your income) vis cap and trade and other measures. Socialism is taking American money and giving it to poor countries.
vechorik 1 year ago
"For 30 years, the fertility rate of Europe has been below the 2.1 children per woman necessary to replace a population. In Russia and Ukraine, a million people disappear yearly. In Western Europe, the passing of the native-born goes on quietly, as Third World peoples come to fill the empty spaces left by the aborted and unconceived."
Entropy56 2 years ago
"In every Western nation, government is growing beyond the capacity of taxpayers to bear. Deficits and debt are surging. Not enough children are being born to replace parents. The immigrant poor who consume more than they contribute are coming to take the empty places. Seniors and elderly are growing as a share of the population. Companies are saying goodbye to the West and moving offshore to low-wage lands."
Enjoy your Sociaism while you can.
Entropy56 2 years ago
The recession of 2008-09 has undercut one of the most destructive social theories that came out of the 1960s: the idea that the root cause of crime lies in income inequality and social injustice. As the economy started shedding jobs in 2008, criminologists and pundits predicted that crime would shoot up, since poverty, as the "root causes" theory holds, begets criminals. Instead, the opposite happened. Over 7 million lost jobs later, crime has plummeted to its lowest level since the early 1960s.
Entropy56 2 years ago
The 1960s offered a challenge to the poverty-causes-crime thesis. Homicides rose 43%, despite an expanding economy and a surge in government jobs for inner-city residents. The Great Depression also contradicted the idea that need breeds predation, since crime rates dropped during that prolonged crisis.
Entropy56 2 years ago
This is because the weak dna has domminated over the strong dna via the system.
Sexymetroman 2 years ago
@Sexymetroman Yes, I agree get rid of the weak DNA! The current congress and
Obama as president clearly show you have made a great point! TIME TO VOTE OUT THE WEAK DNA!!!!!! EUROPE SHOULD DO THIS TOO!!! JUST SAY NO TO WEAK DNA!!!!
goldsilverandiamonds 2 years ago
You can't make people embrace something they really do not seem to want.Wealth is earned by those who sacrifice and study how to become wealthy it generally takes a lot of hard work.Just like you cannot make people lose weight or want to be healthy you can only encourage them and try to teach them the skills so that they can help themselves.Liberals always want to redistribute some elses wealth which is about a smart as trying to redistribute some elses health,fitness level,desire or education.
goldsilverandiamonds 2 years ago
- In the USA, the poor have debt. The rich have savings and investments.
- In the USA, the poor look for quick pleasure. The rich delay pleasure (and enjoy tons later).
There is a reason the poor became poor in the first place. Teach them why and how not be poor. Inspire them.
Teach them that success is based on habits and hard work.
Greed and envy are traits of the poor, not the rich. Most rich people give alot of money away. My family does. My uncle does. My dad's millionaire boss does.
jeabo0adhd 2 years ago
haha, your simplistic view of economics is kind of funny. You clearly don't have any rich friends that inherited millions and live off the of interest, indulging every pleasure they can think of.
As far as the comment of about poor people's debt, you're just describing what it means to be "poor". You're not answering *why* they have debts. The pleasure comment is just flat out wrong.
ephesus 2 years ago
I agree with him. I can't understand the mindset of people like Glenn Beck and his Tea Parties. What is so great about having so many people with no health insurance? Most people are just living pay check to pay check and need a safety net.
sccoast1700 2 years ago
I think it is great that people start to talk about the matter.
Personally (and I am sure many of you will put me off as radical or communist), I think there should be a natural limit as to how much one is allowed to own and, above all, "earn". Quite frankly, with about 10 times the average persons' assets or earnings, you're bloody damn rich. Could anyone be deserving more? Please, tell me why.
realisoph 2 years ago
Helping those who ask for help is a doing good deed.
But responsibilty of care for poor ppl lies in the hands of government of each country. Rich country could ask these gov't to provide the basic necessities of life.
Many missionaries and charitable organizations don't always spend money on "good cause" and also there are incidents of abuse of poor children by these visiting missionaries .. word of caution here.
Zeno1999 2 years ago
its funny to read all of the people who sit and make excusses for why we should accept poverty even in our own country. they will sit their and tell you about how they should work harder etc... when the wealthy refuse to pay a individual a livable wage and choose to go out to the third world to capitalize on child labor and .05 a day wages
TheEvolver311 2 years ago
Part of me is not surprised that rich Brazilians can't travel freely through Rio or Sao Paolo because they fear being kidnapped and held for ransom (they travel by helicopter or bullet proof car). After kidnapping someone, a gang will often cut off one or both of their victim's ears and send it to the family with the ransom note. There is a thriving niche plastic surgery that specializes in fashioning outer ears from rib cartilage. Ain't unfettered capitalism and gross inequality grand?
scpotts101 2 years ago
The corporations loan money to these poor countries for infrastructure than repossess the same infrastructure through default and the poor country leaders profit from the same. Then they think Damn Americans, capitalist pigs!
anyonefindAMERICA 2 years ago
This wonderful message sails right over the heads of the greedy, capitalistic fools in the USA.
Just too damn busy getting money together for the next BMW. Could care less about the poor...and where in the f*ck is El Salvador?
Nation of morons.
HulksHeroes 2 years ago
Spoken like someone who enjoys not having to steal money from other people directly when the government will do it for him.
Voluntary charitable giving is huge in the USA. That's the way it should be. That's the moral way.
bradwatson7324 2 years ago
Told you it would go right over your head.
HulksHeroes 2 years ago
Yep, with them, everything is about money. Wealth for the few is apparently more important than eliminating poverty.
zet168 2 years ago
It's sad...but they totally miss the message. Did they even get what Rick Steves was saying about the mindset of the Swiss?
I'm just puzzled by this in our country. I totally understand wanting to be wealthy. I just don't get the part where we don't give a damn about those who are starving and living in desperation. It's like, "It's not my problem". What a short sighted society.
HulksHeroes 2 years ago 3
Is it wrong to tax someone's Ferrari away to save lives in a third world country?
You would have to be a sociopath to say yes.
paganiniGOGO 2 years ago
There's a great animated video here on YouTube called The Philosophy of Liberty. It answers your question simply and beautifully.
bradwatson7324 2 years ago
So you're saying to violate the "liberty" of a person to accumulate vast amounts of wealth, in order to save human lives is immoral?
You don't honestly believe that, it's a pathetic rationalization for apathy.
Would you sell half of a millionaire's property to pay for a life saving operation for your child?
Or would you not, on the grounds that your child dying is a better outcome than violating someone's liberty to consume.
We both know the answer because we're talking about moral truisms.
paganiniGOGO 2 years ago
The only way to justify the repugnant sociopathic view that personal wealth is worth more than human life is if you're a solipsist.
paganiniGOGO 2 years ago
When this guy says "Americans" he should specify the top 10 percent or so. Most Americans are poor.
paganiniGOGO 2 years ago
Wonderful video, love Rick Steves.
billthebutcher2 2 years ago
Build more wells...and less bombs...
skeletonmom 2 years ago 2
Great vid! This one I need to see all of it :))
kaxitaksi 2 years ago
Plenty of gated communities here too. High fences. Security gates and guards patrolling. I see quite a gap right here between rich and working poor. The non-working poor are living well-- nice housing, food banks, clothing banks. They drive newer cars than the working poor.
The "happy to pay high taxes" folks- probably have to cheat on their taxes to stay ahead or just stay even. My friends in Mexico have to do that.
If you want to donate higher taxes, go ahead. Don't force the rest of us.
vivaloriflamme 2 years ago
The whole idea of money is an invention, product of the "modern" society. The same modern society that provides you with high quality education, modern medicine, technology and work is only asking you to give back part of your work, so other people can benefit as much as you did.
If you don't like paying taxes, you can always go live to Somalia.
JennyFarlopez 2 years ago
If we really have compassion for the poor, we must see that the gap between the rich and poor is irrelevant. What we REALLY care about is the absolute level of the wealth of the poor. Do they have food, clothing, shelter and health care? How much of it do they have on an ABSOLUTE level, not a relative level.
Socialism tends to make the poor worse off, even as it reduces the rich-poor gap. Free markets tend to make the poor better off on an absolute basis, even as it increases the gap.
freesk8 2 years ago
Dam, haven't hear anybody talk sense in a LONG TIME!!
Great video
AVTPro 2 years ago
seriously...travel is IMPORTANT...0:36....thats bullshit, americans are opportunistic parasites that unknowingly thrive on the suffering of others while keeping themselves distracted in a bubble of pop culture and a facade of "christian morals."
look at what the products of this morally bankrupt society have done to our own economy...those fukrs shud be made an example of, no mercy for the corrupt and opportunistic
justforwatchingcraps 2 years ago
I would rather spend money on the poor then on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
ndyt 2 years ago 19
@ndyt That like saying you would rather spend money on the poor, instead of for poor causes to make a few rich... You are not giving them what they want, good job
luc59457 11 months ago
Every day Rand spins in her grave a little faster.
bradwatson7324 2 years ago
In Saigon in the late 1960's, military & government buildings and hotels occupied by foreigners were ringed by security and huge concrete obstacles (often as macro flower pots, for the aesthetics), and when I retired from government service, in the U.S. midwest, two years ago, our building was ringed by security and huge concrete flower pots.
If your hometown is a major city, go look at the government buildings. Whadya see?
voyeurdug 2 years ago
I don't understand why the goal is to go out and improve the world image of America by donating money. That isn't the same, as paying higher taxes to provide more services to everyone equally in that society. In America we are all for keeping everything for ourselves, never really stopping to think about others. We don't want to think about those who are left out in our own society.
Sabricent 2 years ago
The reason the people who need help the most don't get it, is because our social services are provided by a middle man called the government.
The government is a coercive monopoly, so they have no incentive to make a real difference.
If you don't help politicians get re-elected with million dollar campaign donations & media exposure, you don't matter.
If government programs fail to solve problems they get more money. They have incentive to make problems worse.
truthadvocate 2 years ago
All monopolies are coersive in defense of their own wants, are they not?
Should government be different? They should. Are they? No. why not? Because they are run by people who care more about political agendas and their own personal wants than about the good they are supposed to be working on.
The politicians are a reflection of the people. From Obama to Boehner, to Foxx, To Barney Frank. If the politicians suck, maybe, just maybe, the people have something to do with that.
Oopaack 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
The gap between rich and poor is irrelevant.
If you had 10 dollars and your neighbor had 100 dollars. Would you trade that situation for one in which you both had a penny?
No. That would be stupid. Yet that is the philosophy of the Marxist, Liberal, Democrat, Progressive, etc. which is funny, because they are neither pro liberty nor progressive in the literal sense.
truthadvocate 2 years ago
You can sum 10 + 100 and divided by 2 ...thats fare.
globalarte 2 years ago
All that will do is cause the person producing the 100 to stop doing so. What's the incentive to produce 100 if all you get to enjoy is 55?
Why should a person go to all the effort to become a skilled heart surgeon if he is forced to live in the same size house as the hospital janitor?
bradwatson7324 2 years ago
bradwatson - In Switzerland the surgeon makes more money than the janitor - it's just the gap isn't as drastic. In spite of the taxes Switzerland continues to have surgeons.
cavejourney 2 years ago
"Fare" is something you pay to ride the bus.
"Fair" is a lack of injustice.
Stealing money from one person to give to another is injustice.
Voluntarily giving money to someone else is fair. See the difference?
Being productive is what creates wealth. When you forcefully redistribute wealth, there is no incentive to be productive. There is only incentive to live off the productivity of others, or to leave the country. This is why socialism leads to poverty.
truthadvocate 2 years ago
Is unreal to think that everybody can graduate from university.
Somebody can work really really hard and never own a house.
Thats not fair.Thats what happened in most developing countries.
Excuse my English... peace.
globalarte 2 years ago
You don't need to own a house. I bought a house. Now it's worth less. I would have been better off renting.
You don't need to graduate from university. I have a masters degree from a prestigious school. I make much less than my friend who never went to university.
More than anything, to succeed, you need knowledge. You can get it from books, the Internet, friends, family, & basically anyone you come in contact with. If you can't afford university, that doesn't mean you can't succeed.
truthadvocate 2 years ago 4
To succeed just ...whatever you doing ... don't quit .
(don't forget Rick Steves talks about the world not just USA)
You keep talking about local examples (because is what you know. i understand).
Believe me travel know different cultures and ways of thinking makes you wiser.
globalarte 2 years ago
I agree.
truthadvocate 2 years ago
Yes, what travel teaches you is that the more individual liberty the people have, the less poverty there is. Where there is great poverty one needs only look at how oppressive the government is to find the cause.
bradwatson7324 2 years ago
I agree.
Why is so much poverty in Newark NJ ?
globalarte 2 years ago
@bradwatson7324
couldn't oppression be just as much a result of poverty as poverty is a result of oppression
Craigipedia 2 years ago
Wealth is not the product of productivity alone. I bet you can't make a tenth the money you do right now if you lived in Guatemala.
JennyFarlopez 2 years ago
There's a difference between "acquiring" wealth & "creating" wealth. One can acquire wealth by stealing. But that just moves wealth from one hand to another. It doesn't "create" wealth. To create wealth, people must produce useful products & services that people want & need. Not only does this create products that make our lives better, it also increases the buying power of everyone's money, & allows more savings which is reinvested in technology that further increases productivity & wealth.
truthadvocate 2 years ago
But you are right. People cannot create wealth as easily in different countries because each region has a unique history & government. Guatemala has been plagued with dictators, countless military coups, instability, socialist revolutionaries, CIA plots, guerrilla warfare, & genocide. I feel deep sympathy for innocent Guatemalan civilians. As long as they are oppressed by governments, the fruits of their productivity will be destroyed. Their efforts wasted.
truthadvocate 2 years ago
@truthadvocate hahahaha, oh wow
obvious troll is obvious
jamesbrennand 2 years ago
This is why leaving America always sounds like such a good idea.
matthewj1985 2 years ago
Rick Santorum and then Rick Stevens. I guess on Fora we hear from the finest humans and the worst humans, but not in that order.
fourthirteen 2 years ago
What a humble wise man !
globalarte 2 years ago 4
Love Rick, he has a great message.
LRonHubbardFuckFace 2 years ago
Rick Steves, the most famous pothead of all.
LRonHubbardFuckFace 2 years ago