Spending habits

[sanctamaria17]

My whole point was that poverty’s more complex than spending habits. If you actually read my posts, I DID say that it was important to be fiscally responsible, to save money, and give to charity.

HOWEVER, if you’re going to stop poverty, saying to a Catholic girl that the money she spent on her new dress could have helped the Congo is a bit too simplistic.

Also, those people who could lose their jobs are the very ones you claim to want to save. I’m not talking about the big CEO’s. I’m talking about the retail associates, cashiers, custodial staff, factory workers, etc who could lose their entire livelihoods. Like my housekeeper in Kenya, these people want and need these jobs for their families, for the hope of one day pulling themselves up.

I never said it was an excuse to be unjust. I never said it was an excuse to have a free for all spending party. I never said, “To heck with all the Earth’s resources and with all the poor.” I was trying to give you another light to look at all these issues from.

Obviously, you never read any of my posts. Or, if you did, you didn’t think about them.

 

[Jea9]

Yeah, saving money would reduce the inflation increase/decrease because there’d be less aggregate demand with an increased percentage level of marginal propensity to save. This would allow more people to buy more items at a lower price, so people in Congo would be able to buy more stuff.

Saving money, instea dof spending it, would help people in Congo.

Now, would it be ok to give to the poor? haha because then we’d be increasing aggregate demand. If you think about it, if these people in Congo are buying more food then the supply for food would go up as this resource becomes less available. What you would get though, is more resources being devoted to food for people in Congo rather than making things that we don’t ‘need’.

So the best thing to do would be to send the money to Congo so that you would have spent on luxury items, so that resources are put in place to increase supply of food to Congo which would also reduce levels of prices of food for people in Congo. Then you’d have a lot of people competing to produce food to the people of Congo at the lowest price as that market became saturated with firms.

I’m right about our impact on the poor by spending money on luxury items which is a fact.

Then we can say we should have programmes to help them be self-sufficient.

Greedy people!

So pretty much you’re still giving “what if” scenarios and not even answering my questions. Where do you live? Do you give money to the poor in your city? Do you volunteer your time at a soup kitchen/shelter/ANYTHING? What are YOU doing specifically to combat this problem?

I’m sorry, I think your Master’s degree qualifies as a luxury. I’m certain those you’re fond of in the Congo would not think that your paying for your Master’s degree is more important than them getting food.

Do you drive a car or do you take public transportation?
Do you have internet at home?
Do you have a cell phone?
Do you have a TV, with or without cable and do you own movies?

All of these are luxury items to someone else.

 

[crazydyl]

So pretty much you’re still giving “what if” scenarios and not even answering my questions. Where do you live? Do you give money to the poor in your city? Do you volunteer your time at a soup kitchen/shelter/ANYTHING? What are YOU doing specifically to combat this problem?

I’m sorry, I think your Master’s degree qualifies as a luxury. I’m certain those you’re fond of in the Congo would not think that your paying for your Master’s degree is more important than them getting food.

Do you drive a car or do you take public transportation?
Do you have internet at home?
Do you have a cell phone?
Do you have a TV, with or without cable and do you own movies?

All of these are luxury items to someone else.

My masters degree will make me a lot of money so that I can give EVEN more money to the poor, how is my masters degree a luxury? So stupid…

I have only the things that I need to help me make money and live

At the end of the day, we are all special so we can’t afford to live lavish lifestyles when people are starving to death.

GOODBYE!

 

[sanctamaria17]

What exactly do you own that will help you make money?

And what are you getting your Master’s in?

How do you know you’ll make more money? Did your employer say, “Hey, we’ll pay for your education and give you a promotion too?” If so, fine. If not, you have no idea. Many people went to grad school, hoping to ride out the recession, only to find that their degrees weren’t marketable. And I’m not talking a Philosophy degree. I’m talking business degrees, law degrees…

By the way, unless these women told you exactly what they were buying and all the reasons why, you have no idea. So yes, it is uncharitable to assume that they are irresponsible and selfish.

Besides, wouldn’t you rather help the poor learn how to make money themselves? It could be argued that, by merely giving it to them, you’d encourage them in the same materialism you yourself claim to condemn.

 

[nsper7]

At the end of the day, we are all special so we can’t afford to live lavish lifestyles when people are starving to death.

My understanding is that the Church does not require a person to take this viewpoint under pain of sin. A person is allowed to enjoy their fiscal resources.

 

[Jay82]

That’s not going to come because some Western people stop going on vacations. Hell, some of the Westerner’s vacations may be some lucky person’s employment, with wages that are sending their children to school.

This is true… take Cancun for example… if everyone stopped going on vacations then that region would literally deteriorate and whither away. It brings in tons of revenue for Quintana Roo and the people who live there. If there was no tourism, many of those people would have no jobs and no source of income. The same applies to other parts of the world which are supported largely on tourism.

Tourism is a billion dollar industy and provides jobs for so many people.

 

[gmarie21]

I am from the planet ‘everybody loves each other’ and it’s in another galaxy

Love one another, because this is more important than luxury items and vacations! You love yourself and holidays more than starving people! Wow! Please help them

Take some history classes, some international political classes, some diplomatic classes and then you can learn why in many poor international areas why the money, supplies, and yes, food, isn’t reaching those areas. And, since you do have a degree, why not give up the pursuit of a masters degree and join a volunteer corps (religious or secular) and go to and live among the poor? You have a heart that may be in the right place, but the words coming out of your mouth are not that of loving anyone, frankly. Oh, and why don’t you make a huge meal and make individual servings of that meal and go walk the streets of the city you live by handing those meals out to the homeless who are sleeping on the park benches or in the alley? But may I recommend that you not only do that, but treat them with dignity and talk to them, engage in a conversation with them. Ask them about their lives, not just their living on the street life, but their lives before they were on the street. Talk about faith with them. And, if you have extra money buy some travel size hygiene supplies and hand those out with the food. What a way to put your time and money where your heart is crying out to help.

 

[JRKH]

OK, Let’s say that the OP is correct, and everyone gives away all they have and gives to the poor. What happens with there is no one left with anything to give away for the poor?

Are there no more “poor” because everyone is in the same boat?
Could be.

Are their no more starving people in some parts of the world because of drought and other
disasters?
Certainly

Will our ability to help our bretheren be damaged by our giving all away?
Of course, because we’ve already given it all away. Who has teh money and ships and cars and planes and other means to aquire and get the required foods/medicines etc to the starving people? We’ve already givein it all away and essentially returned to a locallized, agrarian, subsistance, - But highly Spriitual existance.

The above is a bit on the extreme side but illustrtes the point that having things does not make those things evil nor dioes it make those who posess them evil.

Peace
James