Not long ago, LW blogged about her neighbor, now moved on to warmer mooching pastures. LW had done everything she could to help this neighbor out (enough so, in fact, to have people accuse her of being "Christian" on enough occasions for her to blog about THAT). But what LW brought out in her experiences is the psychology of greed, the fact that no amount of giving is ever enough.

And it was followed up with another self deprecating "America Sucks" article that insisted that we as Americans need to impoverish ourselves to ease our guilt over the plight of the rest of the world; otherwise, any amount of planes driven into our skyscrapers is morally justified. Ironically enough, THAT blogger overlooks the fact that 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers came NOT from an impoverished nation, but in fact, from one of the wealthiest nations in the world, where the CITIZENS of that country live in a virtual welfare state because of the insane amount of their oil royalties (as a sidenote; if you've got enough money to send clandestine terrorists to all points of the globe, to finance flight school, to purchase false passports and ID, you could probably do a lot to eliminate the human misery you claim to despise). The WTC attack was NOT a desperate lash out by starving nations, it was a hate filled ideological attack by Muslim extremists bent on dominating the world with their own radical interpretation of Islam (an interpretation, it must be said, not shared by most other Muslims).

But, at the risk of digressing too much, I will return to the topic at hand. The problem with an entitlement mentality is that it is always seeking more without asking how it can give something BACK. Don't believe me? Take a look at the lines outside the local food bank. Take a look at the lines again in another year. They'll be conprised chiefly of the same faces; all with a variety of excuses about how they are unable to find self sustaining, gainful employment.

You see, "enough" is never enough. Other nations will never become self sufficient if they always have a rich uncle from which they can beg another billion. And we will not become a stronger nation by giving it to them.

Suppose we gave away all this nation's wealth tomorrow, what then? If we put every American in poverty for the sake of the world, we would find the money soon squandered and a world worse off because, when the next tsunami hits, the other nations will find themselves without a well heeled economy on which they can rely.

What we must do, then, is not buy IN to the psychology of greed. There are enough articles written on how other nations are diverting funds meant  for the starving into the pockets of the well heeled for me to not need to rehash them here. Simple use of Google's search tools will net you the results you desire without my assistance.

Any foreign aid given to these countries should be privately funded, should be temporary, and should be contingent upon those nations adopting and implementing a long term strategy for self sufficiency. Anything less is not helping them; it's DESTROYING them.