Help Japan!

[timoteo]

Please international friends. Not all Americans are selfish, ignorant, and rude.

[Roo]

How much of the world's poor population have thousands to spend each month, how many have big screen TV's or cars? How many have running water and cable TV? Hmm? What about electricity and central air conditioning? Because most poor people in america have 4 or more of those items plus a host of others.

Roo, if you feel that our "poor" i.e. those making under 20k in America live worse than poor people in say, South Africa, than I am not sure what to say since you are a more traveled man than I and I would expect you know better.

You said most of the world's Middle Class, not poor. That's what I take issue with. It's just a matter of you saying "America's [this or that] is better [or better off] than most of the world's [this or that]. Saying shit like that will set you up for some long-ass arguments and hurt feelings in life, just trying to call you out while you're still young.

Yes, people in America take advantage of the system, and some of the poorest do acquire big screen TVs, cars, cable TV, and such as you described. My sister-in-law (pretty much, I'm not married) has none of those things you mentioned and she is a licensed nurse practitioner at a veteran's hospital. So yeah, it's not a perfect world, because she pays for everything herself, and as such, she is quite frugal. Too frugal, if you ask me, because I don't make a shitload either but I do buy nice things for myself from time to time. But open your eyes to the world and what it's like to live a "normal", middle-income life in other countries, and realize why it's insulting to compare that quality of life to someone in the projects in Queens or living in a trailer park an hour outside Akron.

[EricHill78]

Hey sgreger thanks for that info. I'm actually in the hospital now and was worried about the bill. I got layed off a couple years back from a good paying job. Had insurance the whole deal. Yeah the business folded etc and I couldn't afford the sign up for this years medical at my new job. I'm laying in the bed now and was really worried about how the hell im going to pay for this. Call me ignorant but i didn't know I could do a long term payment deal later on. That's awesome. Oh that brings me to another story you are not going to believe this. When I first arrived to the ER, I had major pain, inflamed colon etc. The nurse came in and tried to convince me to go home saying " you sure you want to stay, the bacteria and all things you can catch" then a Dr came in extremely rude talking about the bill etc it was outrageous they treated me this way. Long story short someone else came in and my wife and I told her what happened. Now that DR is banned from seeing me and a formal complaint has been made against him. I've been treated like gold ever since. The reason I came to this particular hospital is because the care is top notch in the area. I have to be healthy for my wife and son they depend on me.

[rickcharles606]

Does it matter? Compassion shouldn't be conditional.

I agree with this statement 100%....BUT, compassion also shouldn't be government mandated through taxation. That being said, my wife and I shipped 5 rather large boxes of clothing and canned goods to Japan, because they have suffered massive losses. My heart goes out to them.

[charmando]

Eric do they know what going on with the colon? if my life was ever so far down in the shitter that i had to rely on foodstamps i would take my opportunity to get away from this f-ed up society for awhile. All i need is a forest, Hunting knife, tent, fleshlight and boom mando v.s. wild.

[rickcharles606]

I don't know what contempt of welfare you think I have. I think welfare is extremely important and essentialy to the prosperity of our nation. I just feel that it should only be for the genuinely poor who need a helping hand, as opposed to how it is currently used.

See, I agree with this statement, because I know people need help..and I never want anyone's children go hungry, I'm a Daddy myself for god's sake. However, I honestly believe there are FAR more people on welfare that abuse the system. It's these abusers that I have contempt for, not the really needy. So, it raises the question...how do you sort out the abusers from the needy? I feel that mandatory drug testing would get a majority of them, if they pop positive then they have a month to get clean or they're off the tit.

[fishmeat]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_newsro...mi-how-to-help

I don't know if this was mentioned, but here is a list with links to places and ways you can help Japan.

[rickcharles606]

Here's where we sent ours....




They really need :
1.Food (instant foods, dietary supplements, baby foods)
2.Warm blankets (That north part of Japan is still really cold now)
3.Cothing
4.Baby clothings, and DIAPERS!!!!

Attn: Earthquake relief supplies
Miyagi Prefectural Office
3-8-1, Honcho
Aoba-ku, Sendai city, Miyagi
980-8570, JAPAN

Attn: Earthquake relief supplies
Iwate Prefectural Office
10-1 Uchimaru Morioka city, Iwate
020-8570,JAPAN

Attn:Earthquake relief supplies
Aomori Prefectural Office
1-1-1 Nagashima, Aomori city,
Aomori, 030-8570, JAPAN

Attn:earthquake relief supplies
Fukushima Prefectural Office
2-16 Sugitsuma-cho, Fukushima City
960-8670, JAPAN

[sgreger1]

Hey sgreger thanks for that info. I'm actually in the hospital now and was worried about the bill. I got layed off a couple years back from a good paying job. Had insurance the whole deal. Yeah the business folded etc and I couldn't afford the sign up for this years medical at my new job. I'm laying in the bed now and was really worried about how the hell im going to pay for this. Call me ignorant but i didn't know I could do a long term payment deal later on. That's awesome. Oh that brings me to another story you are not going to believe this. When I first arrived to the ER, I had major pain, inflamed colon etc. The nurse came in and tried to convince me to go home saying " you sure you want to stay, the bacteria and all things you can catch" then a Dr came in extremely rude talking about the bill etc it was outrageous they treated me this way. Long story short someone else came in and my wife and I told her what happened. Now that DR is banned from seeing me and a formal complaint has been made against him. I've been treated like gold ever since. The reason I came to this particular hospital is because the care is top notch in the area. I have to be healthy for my wife and son they depend on me.

Thank God bro, I was reading that and about halfway through I was like "WTF, that can't be real, no Dr would have the balls!". I'm glad that asshole got taken care of, that is horrible that you had to go through that. Medical care is expensive in the US, especially any time you go to the ER. They are usually VERY flexible (in my personal experience anyways) about payment, as long as you are paying relatively frequently they won't send it to collection or anything which is great. I had this one bill I didn't pay for like 4 months because I just blatantly forgot about it and I just got a nice call one day asking if I was having trouble paying. I was like, "oh my bad I forgot, let me pay you now", and they were just happy to get a payment, no late fees or any nonsense, no threats. It was pretty nice. I do not know if this is typical elsewhere in the country, but I work in a medical insurance company so I deal with these bastards every day. We are in charge of our injured worker throughout their treatment, and these people are 99% illegal immigrant farm workers, even they go to the hospital and just pay in installments. You should be fine, if they give you shit let me know because the doctor should not at ANY point be worried about nor hassling you about the bill. The Dr gets paid the same whether you pay or not so normally they don't care, either way they can't deny you care.

Good luck man, hope your feeling better!

[EricHill78]

I appreciate it a lot bro I'll let you know how it goes. The little bit of piece of mind you gave me will let me sleep tonight.

[sgreger1]

I'd like to point out that the Japanese helped us in 1933 by sending LOTS of relief to Long Beach California when a giant quake destroyed us. They were getting us back for some relief we provided them before that. We are both large countries and it is common courtesy to help each other out as a kind gesture of goodwill. In other words it's great PR. Japan has donated lots to us, including a few wealthy japanese businessmen who donated a VERY large sum for Katrina. Americans tend to be under the impression that we donate the most money, this is because it is a common meme that is perpetuated everywhere, that christian charities etc donate the most so we get to snub our noses at everyone. The truth is that while yes we donate the most money (in total), per capita american citizens are less charitable than countries like switzerland and the usual suspects.

Anyways, I did not want anyone thinking I was saying "the japanese don't donate enough to us so don't donate to them!". Everyone who has a few extra dollars to share should donate, this is a huge tragedy that will take decades to undo, and this nuke thing may make it worse soon.

I'll tell you another reason to donate. The japanese economy is a huge massive force in the world economy, it is already starting to suck really bad because everyone is unsure about this whole hat trick triple mega-disaster, but if Japan's economy tanks because of this, it is going to get bad for everyone else in the world. So we, both as a people and as a country, need to be doing whatever we can to assist, because we are paying ourselves really. These people need homes, they need to get back to work, they need to go on with their lives.

[Experimental Monkey]

Why must the shit programs like foodstamps and wellfare be brought up in this thread? Lazy people just take advantage of that crap so they don't have to get their sorry asses to work and pay taxes like a normal person. They'd rather leach off us. Hell give me free healthcare and Skypeenhager or whatever any day over using my money to fund the war over oil and hands for the lazy programs.

[sgreger1]

You said most of the world's Middle Class, not poor. That's what I take issue with. It's just a matter of you saying "America's [this or that] is better [or better off] than most of the world's [this or that]. Saying shit like that will set you up for some long-ass arguments and hurt feelings in life, just trying to call you out while you're still young.

Yes, people in America take advantage of the system, and some of the poorest do acquire big screen TVs, cars, cable TV, and such as you described. My sister-in-law (pretty much, I'm not married) has none of those things you mentioned and she is a licensed nurse practitioner at a veteran's hospital. So yeah, it's not a perfect world, because she pays for everything herself, and as such, she is quite frugal. Too frugal, if you ask me, because I don't make a shitload either but I do buy nice things for myself from time to time. But open your eyes to the world and what it's like to live a "normal", middle-income life in other countries, and realize why it's insulting to compare that quality of life to someone in the projects in Queens or living in a trailer park an hour outside Akron.

Roo, I get that your schtick is to try and make me sound as culturally backwards as possible so I am not even going to argue. I guess our definitions of middle class are different, but in my opinion Americans are doing pretty good compared to others in many countries and therefore we should no be complaining, that's just my personal opinion. In america we complain if we can't have nice things but in some countries it is a luxury to even have running water and electricity and washing machines and and cable TV and free clinics etc, these are things that are standard issue even in our ghettos which, regardless of what you want to say, puts them ahead of some less fortunate people in the countries listed below. This is not a "we're better" statement, it's a "We don't have it that bad so we should be thankfull for what we do have here" statement. What about the people in Libya or Iraq right now? Those people are in a true struggle, in America I feel that there is sufficient oppertunity to where no one should have to starve, I can't say that about everywhere. I'm obviously not talking about europe or the nordic countries, as they all seem to be doing better than us, you know damn well who I am talking about Roo:





I think even our poor are better off than a lot of people and I stand by that statement. It appears the colors are in our favor, which is sad because I would like to see this whole map covered in dark blue. But since that isn't going to happen today, I think those of us living in solid blue zones ont he map here should be thankfull. That is all.

[KCOLLINS18]

Where are these poor people I keep hearing about? Poor by what standard? America's poor live better than most of the world middle class.

.


Oh man! That is 100% true. In the ghetto part of the city that I reside in they get free housing and atleast $500 in food stamps depending on how many kids they have running around but yet they have these nice ass cars. The cars they drive around here are decked out cadilacs. But here I am with a college degree working my ass off 40+ hours a week just to get by pay check to pay check, driving around in a 99 ford escort that i just paid off but now is constantly being worked on. Guess what I have an interview for Wally World because I can not get on government assistant cause making a little bit above minimum wage is making to much money where I don't qualify for any type assistance. Maybe I should knock up my girlfriend, quit my job, start selling drugs, then apply for assistance, and maybe they can pay my college loans also.

I swear they need to start drug testing every individual that comes in and applies for that government assistance, and right there the state is saving money.

[bipolarbear1968]

.


Oh man! That is 100% true. In the ghetto part of the city that I reside in they get free housing and atleast $500 in food stamps depending on how many kids they have running around but yet they have these nice ass cars. The cars they drive around here are decked out cadilacs. But here I am with a college degree working my ass off 40+ hours a week just to get by pay check to pay check, driving around in a 99 ford escort that i just paid off but now is constantly being worked on.

Can we say "looters"?