Are wealthy countries in anyway responsible to lift poor countries out of poverty?

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A sales tax is voluntary. Or just do what the church does, have citizens of the states pay a month contribution, if they so want, to the state to run things.
 
The exact same applies to you, except my opinion allows for true free will. Yours force people to obey our masters or be punished.
 
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philipl said:
The exact same applies to you, except my opinion allows for true free will. Yours force people to obey our masters or be punished.
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Not exactly. Everybody is free to move to a more tax friendly jurisdiction.
 
When I retire that is exactly what were are doing. Move all my money to a tax free haven. Shame I cant move to the vatican. NO TAXES.

There are no taxes, no restrictions on the import or export of funds, and no customs or excise duties payable in the Vatican City. Employees of the Vatican pay no income tax and no customs duty on gasoline or goods that they buy in the Vatican. Non-Italians enjoy allowances on their monthly salaries.

Read more: Vatican City Politics, government, and taxation, Information about Politics, government, and taxation in Vatican City
 
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stinkcat_14 said:
Not exactly. Everybody is free to move to a more tax friendly jurisdiction.
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Not necessarily. Radio Personality Rush Limbaugh reported that he was audited by New York City for a dozen years after moving to Florida. He had to actually prove he wasn’t living there
 
A sales tax is NOT voluntary, it is a consumption tax that those who are poor or lower-income must contribute to ensure the basic necessities of life, not every poor or lower-income/working-class person can escape to a community (Oregon) without a sales tax.

In respect to the government having no right to one’s fruits of their labor, I can understand how certain tax rates (75%) can be seen as confiscatory but my concern with this whole “taxation is theft” mentality is that an extreme interpretation of this ideology could cause people to die due to a lack of willingness to support a safety net for those in need, not everyone has a family, neighborhood, charity or even church they can count on.
 
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Sydney Siders thankfully get little of that apart from the odd spider 😂
It’s more when you travel outback or tropical Queensland that you start seeing all the bugs,geckos…and lets not forget the crocodiles 🐊…😬
 
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A lot of people in Australia think though that the service of Australia Post has gone worse since he was appointed though.
Personally, I still think the service is excellent compared to the postal services in some other countries,but certainly not enough to sit comfortably earning $5 million a year.

Regarding the FedEx CEO -sure there is someone out there always more greedier but I don’t think that should be used as a benchmark to justify a $5 million yearly salary.
Even if Fahour improved Australia Posts financial situation by moving it away from a letter delivery service to pretty much a purely package delivery service,it still isn’t necessary to agree to such a high salary.
There are certain CEOs who voluntarily agree to Salary cuts because they don’t feel internally/morally comfortable ‘living it up so much’,living in mansions and sending their kids on countless overseas holidays etc while there are other people in great poverty or working for minimum wage but putting in many long hours and hard work.

I definitely don’t think CEO’s should reduce their wage to the level that Dan Price has-I don’t know if him paying himself this is foolish or admirable (obviously his responsibilities are more greater that his staff) -but generally speaking there is a vast difference between $5 million and the average “Postie” wage of approx $50,000 a year.
Just something to consider.

Apparently Fahour is selling his mansion now for $40 million if you are interested in buying😉

The links you have posted about growing/catching food etc,the problem is that except from catching the “odd snake” growing food takes years for the plants to reach maturity and those populations need to eat today.
For example,the circumstances are a bit different,but here the government has agreed to lease land at no cost to some Aboriginal corporations to grow Kakadu Plum trees as there is a lot of commercial interest in the Kakadu plum.The sales of the Plums will eventually benefit those Aboriginal communities but this will take some years to grow and even after those years, I think the demand will still outdo the supply possible from each years harvest.
Whether it’s growing this or Moringa etc,either for self sustainability or for commercial purpose,all this takes time/years.



 
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Rozellelily said:
but generally speaking there is a vast difference between $5 million and the average “Postie” wage of approx $50,000 a year.
Just something to consider.
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Well then, turn over the job to the most recently hired letter carrier.

[I know … just talking.]
 
Augustinian said:
Government workers are like anyone else, they want to, they need to try and protect their livelihoods.

Are “food stamps” the best way to provide food to the nation’s indigent? Maybe, maybe not. But food stamp workers who earn their living printing the documents or distributing them to the masses are going to do what they can to stay in the loop.
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Turn over food stamp distribution to the recipients?
 
Rozellelily said:
The links you have posted about growing/catching food etc,the problem is that except from catching the “odd snake” growing food takes years for the plants to reach maturity and those populations need to eat today.
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Trees take time … but peanut / ground nut plants [and many other plants] are … I was going to say seasonal … but a lot of these places don’t have “seasons” … one tropical droughty place I worked at, got friendly with a Canadian family, and they said EVERYTHING grows here … they had a huge garden in their rental house/yard.

ALTHOUGH I did plant some fast-growing trees that you had to step back to avoid getting impaled.

[I have not planted bamboo, but I am told it is fast growing; did ask for extra bamboo in a Chinese restaurant and the chef came out to interview me.]
 
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Or just turn it over to someone who is both skilled and has a “social conscience”.
There are people who are at neither ends of the two extremes -ie:underskilled or greedy.

If peanuts can really grow in approx 6 months that that’s a great idea 👍
Although there are challenges to overcome such as educating those poor to be accepting of the idea,ensuring that there is good soil and non contaminated regular water supply etc…

Providing the locals can be convinced,maybe something like peanuts can help reduce deaths from malnutrition but there are then still the other problems such as lack of employment and getting all the nutrients needed from a mixed diet.
 
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Australia doesn’t have food stamps but here the equivalent is more like food packages and these are usually distributed by volunteers at charities .
Personally I don’t believe that government workers should be doing this -it should be volunteers.
 
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MonteRCMS said:
Turn over food stamp distribution to the recipients?
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That might be considerably cheaper to do so- have the program run on the honor system. Sure a few people will take advantage and cheat-- but you’d lose the burden of paying most of the bureaucrats ruling over the program. And there is cheating going on now, even with the legions of busybodies overseeeing it.
 
Rozellelily said:
Although there are challenges to overcome such as educating those poor to be accepting of the idea,enduring that there is good soul and non contaminated regular water supply etc…
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One of the interesting things in the U.S. are “agricultural and mechanical” schools. They are run by the individual states. Some are famous such as Texas A&M. And they are focused on local needs.

https://majors.tamu.edu/


Texas A&M’s main campus in College Station is home to more than 62,500 students.

More than just a football team although loyalists get pretty passionate.
 
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RCIAGraduate said:
If countries like Sweden, Norway and the United Arab Emirates can spend up to 1% of their GNI on foreign aid and development programs why not US? Think of the potential we could achieve.

Practically, wouldn’t having strong and robust defense (Department of Defense), diplomatic (Department of State) and development (USAID) sectors help ensure global development and hopefully the pursuit of world peace and stability (renewing Pax Americana?)?
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Why do you say we don’t spend that amount?
It just doesn’t go through US AID which doesn’t have a great track record.
Our role as world policeman is what allows other countries not to spend on their own militaries, and saves many lives through reduced conflicts.
Significant aid is given by citizens through charities, and those charities are more flexible and adaptive than govt programs which often have a political motive. When Sweden gives aid, they expect the equipment to be bought from swedish companies. that’s how it works.
 
RCIAGraduate said:
A sales tax is NOT voluntary, it is a consumption tax that those who are poor or lower-income must contribute to ensure the basic necessities of life, not every poor or lower-income/working-class person can escape to a community (Oregon) without a sales tax.

In respect to the government having no right to one’s fruits of their labor, I can understand how certain tax rates (75%) can be seen as confiscatory but my concern with this whole “taxation is theft” mentality is that an extreme interpretation of this ideology could cause people to die due to a lack of willingness to support a safety net for those in need, not everyone has a family, neighborhood, charity or even church they can count on.
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JPII wrote against the welfare state.

But a sales tax is voluntary. You can choose what items you want to purchase. I wonder what you would think of a VAT?
 
philipl said:
I wonder what you would think of a VAT?
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Probably would not like it.

We don’t have it here in America, I hear people from Singapore and other places complain about it, and no serious American politicians are pushing for it.

I think the politicians here don’t think we’d like it, and they are probably right
 
Theo520 said:
Why do you say we don’t spend that amount?
It just doesn’t go through US AID which doesn’t have a great track record.
Our role as world policeman is what allows other countries not to spend on their own militaries, and saves many lives through reduced conflicts.
Significant aid is given by citizens through charities, and those charities are more flexible and adaptive than govt programs which often have a political motive. When Sweden gives aid, they expect the equipment to be bought from swedish companies. that’s how it works.
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#395:

We already do that!!!

And much more!!!

AND, in addition, It does not include money from private charitable organizations

As of fiscal year 2017, foreign aid between the U.S. State Department and USAID totaled $50.1 billion, or just over 1% of the budget.[8]

United States foreign aid is aid given by the United States government to other governments. It does not include money from private charitable organizations based in the United States, or remittances sent between family members. There are two broad categories: military aid and economic assistance.[1] The Congressional Research Service divides it into five categories: bilateral development aid, economic assistance, humanitarian aid, multilateral economic contributions, and military aid.[2]

Foreign aid recipients include developing countries, countries of strategic importance to the United States, and countries recovering from war. The government channels about half of its economic assistance through a specialized agency, the [United States Agency for International Development]

Government-sponsored foreign aid began a systematic fashion after World War II; there were numerous programs of which the largest were the Marshall Plan of 1948 and the Mutual Security Act of 1951-61.

Foreign aid is generally unpopular with the general public, with a 2017 poll finding 57% favor a cut and 6% who want increased aid.[4] On the other hand, foreign aid has bipartisan support in Congress,[[5]]

(United States foreign aid - Wikipedia) and most Americans overestimate foreign aid as a share of the total federal budget. In the past, less than 1% of the national budget went to foreign assistance.[[6]]

As of fiscal year 2017, foreign aid between the U.S. State Department and USAID totaled $50.1 billion, or just over 1% of the budget
 
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