The Mastercard ad you didnt see on tv

[Keren]

Amount spent each year in Europe and the United States on pet food: $17 billion
Cost per year to achieve basic health and nutrition for the entire world: $13 billion

Amount spent on perfumes each year: $12 billion
Clean water for all the world: $9 billion

Amount spent on cosmetics in the US: $8 billion
Basic education for the world's children: $6 billion


Total amount the US spends on Christmas each year: $450 billion (or 16 years worth of food, water, and education for the world)


Initial cost of the US Government bailout of failing financial institutions: $700 billion (or 25 years worth of food, water, and education for the world)

Coming to grips with the alarming disconnects of our consumerist society: Priceless

 

[grannysoo]

Coming to grips with the alarming disconnects of our consumerist society: Priceless

But is that ever going to happen? Right now, everyone is squeezing the dollar really tight. I do anticipate however that once the economy improves a little, most everyone is going to be right back into spending everything they can get their hands on.

I understand why my grandmother saved empty bread sacks...

 

[Nesikep]

yup.. it's pretty sad..

I guess I can say I'm guilty of buying a few 50lb sacks of cat food, can't say I've ever bought perfumes and cosmetics though

another one I'd like to know are "prescription drugs that aren't needed".. there's a cash cow

 

[1982vett]

Keren, please don't blindly believe stuff like this. I think the source of your post has an agenda to mislead unsuspecting people or those who really want to believe. I took just a few seconds searcing "education" to find figures on what the US spends on education. This is the first article I found with number (it could be wrong as well as right, I don't know): http://www.edweek.org/login.html?source ... velId=1000

Exerpt: Riley declared proration — or across-the-board spending cuts — of 12.5 percent for the $6.3 billion education budget.

I would like to point out that this is at the Federal level. Does not include what the states spend nor what the local school districts get from local taxes. And I hope we don't pay for the rest of the worlds education out of that.

...Basic education for the world's children: $6 billion

Shoot, I make over $500 a head on my calves if all my expenses and losses go to growing hay and pasture. It is easy to skew numbers to meet the needs of an outcome.

 

[Keren]

vett - I questioned the figures myself when this was sent to me, but regardless of whether they are accurate or not, I appreciated the premise behind this and that is why I felt I wanted to share it.

 

[1982vett]

Someones trying to make victims out of non-victims and point fingers and "evil societies". HOGWASH! Let's see their halos, I'm sure they are shining bright. :roll:

 

[Keren]

vett ... you are missing the point.

If we all went without a few 'wants', we could help others cover their 'needs' and make the world a better place.

 

[grannysoo]

vett ... you are missing the point.

If we all went without a few 'wants', we could help others cover their 'needs' and make the world a better place.

Thanks Keren. I understand your point and intentions.

However, all needs will be met immediately in Amerika on January 20, 2009. :help:

 

[perda04]

vett ... you are missing the point.

If we all went without a few 'wants', we could help others cover their 'needs' and make the world a better place.

Mark 14:7

The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me.

 

[1982vett]

No I get the point, I just think most are in the position they are because of themselves, if not because of their government. Don't much care for all the guilt trips some organizations and prima donnas lay on the public either, especially when their methods are so questionable. Tell the same lie often enough and sooner or later it is hard to distinguish fact from fiction. Liberals are masters of this techinque.

Ben Franklin said, "God helps those who help themselves". I tend to follow this philosophy.



Question: "God helps those who help themselves - is it in the Bible?"

Answer: "God helps those who help themselves" is probably the most often quoted phrase that is not found in the Bible. This is actually a quote from Ben Franklin and it appeared in Poor Richard's Almanac in 1757. In fact the Bible teaches the opposite. God helps the helpless! Isaiah 25:4 declares, "For You have been a defense for the helpless, a defense for the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat..." Romans 5:6 tells us, "For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly."

In terms of salvation, we are all utterly helpless. We are all infected by sin (Romans 3:23), and condemned as a result of that sin (Romans 6:23). Nothing we can do on our own can remedy this situation (Isaiah 64:6). Thankfully, God is the helper of the helpless. While we were still sinners, Jesus died for us (Romans 5:8). Jesus paid the penalty that we were incapable of paying (2 Corinthians 5:21). God provided the "help" that we need precisely because we could not help ourselves.

Apart from salvation, there is perhaps a way that the concept "God helps those who help themselves" is correct. As an example, if you asked me to help you move a piece of furniture, but then just watched me as I moved the furniture for you, I was not actually helping you. I would be doing the work for you. Many Christians fall into the trap of inactivity. Many Christians ask God for help, but then expect God to do everything Himself. They excuse this by pointing to the fact that God will provide according to His will and in His timing. However, this is not a reason for inactivity. As a specific example, if you are in need of a job, ask the Lord to help you find a job - but then be active in actually looking for a job. While it is in His power to do so, it is highly unlikely that God will cause employers to come looking for you!

http://www.gotquestions.org/God-help-themselves.html

Now for waste of good opportunities. How many millions were spent on just the recent US elections for a job that pays a mere pittance of the money spent to get it. The "volunteers" time could well have been used elsewhere for greater humanitarian work, but no, they didn't do that. Is that just in this country or is it a world wide phenomenon?

Their is also a difference in freely giving and forced giving thru taxation.