That is a simple question w/ a complicated answer! I am really quite torn as on one hand I feel it is anti american and treasonous to take from the american people but on the other hand are we just delaying the inevitable by persisting in the thinking that somehow govt/society can be fixed and I cheer the downfall so we may start anew.(ala mad max if I had my way!) and heres some food for thought ...is there really a recession happening? they show us numbers in the stock market and in our spending but those numbers are a REACTION to the media TELLING us its a recession. If you notice ridiculous amounts are still being spent everywhere for ridiculous things(like a "suicide fence" costing 9 million dollars to prevent more suicides! ) so either THEY are complete idiots(and that is not a remote possibility) or its all a bunch of manipulative crap! Nik

I don't think this idea of resenting aid being given to 3rd world countries is what you should be taking from the whole globalization mess. It's true that these American-made corporations that are now multinationals have betrayed the country, outsourcing jobs and taking their profits overseas, but how can you say that 3rd world countries are profiting? Mostly Americans profit, in the form of imported resources / cheap goods from poorer countries that are forced to sell for whatever pittance the multinationals are willing to pay, while their lands are ecologically devastated. Look at Starbucks for one example - only after years of grassroots organizing and campaigning are they now paying lip-service to the idea of "fair trade" and ethical/ecological standards, but very little of the coffee they sell is certified fair trade, and they go on making millions a year selling us (comparatively) cheap coffee, while the people who sweated and slaved to grow it are staying poor. Look at Nike for another example - after years of paying slave labor wages to sweatshop factory workers in 3rd world countries it took a long time of public outcry before anything was done about it, and does anybody know whether the situation today is much better? Are those the jobs you're complaining about not having here in America? The enemy is not the factory and farm slaves in other countries, it's the capitalist slave-drivers all over the world! The same people in America we're taught to worship as the "creators of wealth and prosperity", who are actually just fat ticks made rich on the life-blood of their workers. The vampiric "ruling class" we're supposed to follow around all over the world trying to catch some of that "trickle down" money they tell us about, or begging for the chance to sell them our land and labor.

Well, the government wastes tax money on many less worthy causes. One of the latest being the big Wall street bailout... in an effort to dig us out of the recession. Personally I think we'd all be better off without nation states, banks, taxes, or even "private property". Instead we'd live in managable tribal social units, our borders made by geographic region, and we'd share with each other what the land affords. ...but i'm a hopeless dreamer.