This Article Addresses a Point if View Regarding the Poor--Thoughts?

[Petaro]

I would also disagree with some of the statements of the article.

Some (especially US Americans) like to talk about the failures of socialism. Yet, sitting in a western country where people don’t have to hold down 2 (and I have never met, or heard of, an Australian holding 3) to support their families, where health care is affordable, education within reach, I wonder what they’re so scared of.

There is a middle ground between US capitalism and North Korean communism and I’ve never understood why so many people (again, especially US Americans) don’t understand this. That middle ground that so many western countries have managed to achieve is what people want. For everyone. Those in the west who live in countries like the US, and those in the African nations who face violence and hungry everyday.

What I hear Pope Francis saying isn’t evil. It isn’t a unjustified preoccupation with the poor. It is common sense. Those who stand against him need to reconsider their views.

I can only agree. Many Australians don’t understand that our general standard of living is higher than in the USA. Our minimum wage is 16 dollars an hour, most people who hold property in the capital cities hold over a million in assets. Our Health system is free to all and our medium income levels are on par with most western countries at $1114 per week.
We really have no concept of the generational poverty now building up in Greece and other PIG nations with Europe, much less half of Asia and Africa.
The Pope is right in looking for a distributional change at a world level, not necessarily Gardens of the week for everyone.

 

[StrawberryJam]

I can only agree. Many Australians don’t understand that our general standard of living is higher than in the USA. Our minimum wage is 16 dollars an hour, most people who hold property in the capital cities hold over a million in assets. Our Health system is free to all and our medium income levels are on par with most western countries at $1114 per week.
We really have no concept of the generational poverty now building up in Greece and other PIG nations with Europe, much less half of Asia and Africa.
The Pope is right in looking for a distributional change at a world level, not necessarily Gardens of the week for everyone.

You are also on the metric system. The USA for some reason or other, is on par with at least two or more third world countries that use the measurement system still to this day in place.
I wish I was making this up.

 

[LongingSoul]

I would like to know whether this organisation is the same as the “Australia/or somewhere Needs Fatima” group?

My parents were signed up to this group by someone they know and they have been getting requests for money from them incessantly. My parents are very loyal Catholics and very generous to Catholic causes, but something in my gut keeps telling me that something about this lot is dodgy.

If this is the same lot that wrote that article linked by the OP, I intend to advise my parents to ditch the hypocrits for a more faithful Catholic cause.

 

[freeRadical]

I can only agree. Many Australians don’t understand that our general standard of living is higher than in the USA. Our minimum wage is 16 dollars an hour, most people who hold property in the capital cities hold over a million in assets. Our Health system is free to all and our medium income levels are on par with most western countries at $1114 per week.
We really have no concept of the generational poverty now building up in Greece and other PIG nations with Europe, much less half of Asia and Africa.
The Pope is right in looking for a distributional change at a world level, not necessarily Gardens of the week for everyone.

What do you mean by “free”?

Also, the cost of living in Australia is about 30% higher then the US and your purchasing power is lower by about 25%.

numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_countries_result.jsp?country1=Australia&country2=United%20States

Look at the price of jeans, shoes, and apartments.

 

[freeRadical]

You are also on the metric system. The USA for some reason or other, is on par with at least two or more third world countries that use the measurement system still to this day in place.
I wish I was making this up.

So? Who cares? The metric system was invented for illiterate and uneducated people.

 

[Petaro]

What do you mean by “free”?

Also, the cost of living in Australia is about 30% higher then the US and your purchasing power is lower by about 25%.

numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_countries_result.jsp?country1=Australia&country2=United%20States

Look at the price of jeans, shoes, and apartments.

The issue is not a competition amongst the wealthy countries. The thread was about the importance the Pope places on fighting poverty across an unequal world. Both of us in America and Australia will have to face Jesus with some answer to the challenge He put to the rich young man. Must we be ashamed to live the lives of luxury lived by most in both our countries whilst people starve in other countries. Your point about our cost of living is true. This is due to our minute population in a country of great natural resources. Twenty five million people in a country the size of Europe with only one border, the sea.
Each one of those twenty five million has the potential to be amongst the richest in the world if we ignore our responsibility to our Christian heritage. Rich men find it difficult to enter the kingdom of heaven. Both Australia and America owe the poor more than hoarding wealth.

 

[freeRadical]

The issue is not a competition amongst the wealthy countries.

Never said it was. You were the one comparing Australia to other countries. I was merely pointing out that your cost of living is higher then the US and your purchasing power is lower. Your median monthly disposable income is 17% higher then the US but your prices are on average 30% to 50% higher then the US. Sound like you are getting the short end of the stick there. It is probably has more to do with your high minimum wage and “free” healthcare then it does your “minute population” and “great natural resources”.

As I’ve said before in many threads. The “dollar value” of your wage isn’t important. What is important is the price level and the purchasing power of your dollar.

Reducing the cost of living and increasing the purchasing power of a dollar does more to help the poor then any kind of governmental welfare program. Sounds like the poor are worse off in Australia then America.

 

[Petaro]

Never said it was. You were the one comparing Australia to other countries. I was merely pointing out that your cost of living is higher then the US and your purchasing power is lower. Your median monthly disposable income is 17% higher then the US but your prices are on average 30% to 50% higher then the US. Sound like you are getting the short end of the stick there. It is probably has more to do with your high minimum wage and “free” healthcare then it does your “minute population” and “great natural resources”.

As I’ve said before in many threads. The “dollar value” of your wage isn’t important. What is important is the price level and the purchasing power of your dollar.

Reducing the cost of living and increasing the purchasing power of a dollar does more to help the poor then any kind of governmental welfare program. Sounds like the poor are worse off in Australia then America.

You may be right, but this just places more responsibility on all of us to have a direct answer to poverty in our countries. We should both be proud of our countries only as they respond to the question raised by the Pope. I would be the first to admit that America is the first responder in many natural disasters across the world. Look how they are trying to find those poor girls kidnapped in Nigeria. Now that is a response to be proud of.

 

[freeRadical]

You may be right, but this just places more responsibility on all of us to have a direct answer to poverty in our countries. We should both be proud of our countries only as they respond to the question raised by the Pope. I would be the first to admit that America is the first responder in many natural disasters across the world. Look how they are trying to find those poor girls kidnapped in Nigeria. Now that is a response to be proud of.

America’s response to the the kidnapped girls in Nigeria was atrocious. They did nothing.

 

[Petaro]

America’s response to the the kidnapped girls in Nigeria was atrocious. They did nothing.

I read they were sending in troops to help find them?

 

[StrawberryJam]

So? Who cares? The metric system was invented for illiterate and uneducated people.

Let’s examine who is considered illiterate and uneducated and who is using our system of measurment.

Liberia
Myanmar
USA

And the rest of the world.

 

[freeRadical]

Let’s examine who is considered illiterate and uneducated and who is using our system of measurment.

Liberia
Myanmar
USA

And the rest of the world.

Do you know why the metric system was invented?

 

[freeRadical]

I read they were sending in troops to help find them?

Yeah, finally. They did nothing at first. The even refused to recognize Boko Harem as a terrorist organization.

 

[freeRadical]

Let’s examine who is considered illiterate and uneducated and who is using our system of measurment.

Liberia
Myanmar
USA

And the rest of the world.

BTW

]The metric system has been officially sanctioned for use in the United States since 1866, but it remains the only industrialised country that has not adopted the metric system as its official system of measurement

. Many sources also cite Liberia and Burma as the only other countries not to have done so. Although the United Kingdom uses the metric system for most official purposes, the use of the imperial system of measure, particularly among the public, is widespread, and is legally mandated in various cases.[/quotei]

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_system

So the UK uses the metric system for official purposes but the public uses the imperial system of measurement mostly and sometimes it is legally mandated. The US is very similar.

 

[VeritasLuxMea]

Let’s examine who is considered illiterate and uneducated and who is using our system of measurment.

Liberia
Myanmar
USA

And the rest of the world.

Remind me why I should care. Hasn’t stopped the U.S. from being the most powerful country in the world with the most charitable giving, has it?

 

[Galbin]

I would also disagree with some of the statements of the article.

Some (especially US Americans) like to talk about the failures of socialism. Yet, sitting in a western country where people don’t have to hold down 2 (and I have never met, or heard of, an Australian holding 3) to support their families, where health care is affordable, education within reach, I wonder what they’re so scared of.

There is a middle ground between US capitalism and North Korean communism and I’ve never understood why so many people (again, especially US Americans) don’t understand this. That middle ground that so many western countries have managed to achieve is what people want. For everyone. Those in the west who live in countries like the US, and those in the African nations who face violence and hungry everyday.

What I hear Pope Francis saying isn’t evil. It isn’t a unjustified preoccupation with the poor. It is common sense. Those who stand against him need to reconsider their views.

Exactly. The only people who work two jobs in westernised countries are Americans. I am no big fan of socilaised medicine (I am a fan of subsidised medicine, which is different); however nobody goes bankrupt paying for their cancer treatments in other western countries. I really don’t get why ppl cannot understand that there is a middle ground between socialism and the extreme sort of capitalism that is promoted in some corners.

 

[StrawberryJam]

Remind me why I should care. Hasn’t stopped the U.S. from being the most powerful country in the world with the most charitable giving, has it?

Feel free to admittadly not care.

 

[orang]

unfettered capitalism

 

[HappyCatholic01]

America’s response to the the kidnapped girls in Nigeria was atrocious. They did nothing.

The problem is, and always has been, the US cannot win. When they get involved in a cause, they are often chided on the world stage for acting as the world’s police, and arereminded they need to mind their own business.

When they do not act, they are chided for not doing enough.

Globally, I doubt there will ever be consensus on when the world wants help from the U.S. America is not simply at the beck and call of nations to act whenever a situation warrants it, as determined by the opinion of various groups acorss the globe. Russia invading a sovereign nation is none of our business. Syria killing its own citizens (many children and babies) is none of our business. Yet we somehow didn’t do enough to help Nigeria combat terrorists within its own borders?

Note that I supported a much stronger response to those poor girls, certianly more than a hashtag campaign, though I am quite sure more was and is being done than we will be told, for secuirty and intel reasons. But you simply can’t have it both ways.

Not to divert the topic…

I read they were sending in troops to help find them?

Back to diverting the topic…

Those girls are likely long gone, and are certainly not all in one place. Unles the terrorists are rank amateurs, they are not going to keep them together all this time. I fear the likelihood of even finding a majority of them is very low at this point. Perhaps is our own State Department, under Hillary Clinton, hadn’t declined to declare them a terrorist organization, thus being able to freeze their funding lines and get them into various databses and watch lists, this could have been avoided.

BTW

]The metric system has been officially sanctioned for use in the United States since 1866, but it remains the only industrialised country that has not adopted the metric system as its official system of measurement

I learned from watching Seinfeld that Burma is now called Myanmar, is it not? Come on, wiki…

unfettered capitalism

Mind telling me where on earth that exists? Certainly not in the US, where it is so “fettered” with regulations and imbalances that we have had record periods of joblessness and poverty.

 

[orang]

Mind telling me where on earth that exists? Certainly not in the US, where it is so “fettered” with regulations and imbalances that we have had record periods of joblessness and poverty.

That was exactly the point, and what the Pope emphasized yet some including the popular right media think they need to make a 1/2 hour translation of what was very simply said, that even a 14 year old could understand.