Over the weekend, a massive earthquake hit the South American nation of Chile. It measured 8.8, and is among the largest ever recorded. The damage is massive and the death toll is currently hovering around 700. The president has already pledged the support of the United States should it be needed to the Chilean president.
Chile earthquake: more than 700 dead, 2 million displaced (Salt Lake Tribune)
While this is a noble gesture, the question that must be asked is this... Given the current economic problems in our own nation and the fact that we have done so much to assist in Haiti, can the United States afford to do the same in Chile right now? Should the president be able to just tell other world leaders that we will provide them with money without first presenting the idea to the American tax-payers? (PART I due 3/4 ; PART II due 3/7)
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I honestly dont know what the US should do because we are definately in an economic troubled time. We pledge them money that we don't have. We are printing money and that makes our money worth less on the world market. we can probably send them some help but not in the amounts that we did Haiti. This may sound heartless but we just cant give them too much help. They can ask other countries and might recieve more from them. We should worry more about our own problems in our own country.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe the United States should get involved in another earthquake relief fund. our economy is struggling enough as it is and if we throw more money to another country, we will lose even more hope in our government. Obama is yet to prove his economic boosting plan and we need that to happen before we go wasting money on more countries. what's next? how much more money will we need to donate to countries suffering from natural disasters? we need to ensure our own safety and economic status. there are plenty of homeless people in our own country that need help.
ReplyDeletei definitely agree with gavin on this. we are printing more and more money which just makes it more and more worthless. we are giving them money that we cannot backup and its killing our economy. if we continue doing these we will not be able to recover from our our economic depression.
ReplyDeleteI think that we should help Chile out in there time of need. Chile just suffered one of the biggest earthquake's ever recorded and they need aid. I always say do to others what you would want them to do to you. So if we ever become a really poor nation, then I am pretty sure Jake and Gavin would want the other nations to help us. This is not double sided. If we want help then we need to be giving help.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with Jake because it is not right to watch a country suffer when we could help aid them. Unless our country is totally bankrupt than we can afford to help.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Gavin that we cannot aid Chile with too much money, but we gan definitely help them out. I also disagree with then because Chile's problems can become ours if we are ever in a national disaster.
ReplyDeleteI think that our government is focusing on other countries' problems too much when we should really be focusing on our own. I think that we should help Chile out a little bit, but not to an extreme measure because there are many things that we should be providing to our citizens that are not being provided. If we were to help Chile financially, I would hope that President Obama would tell the taxpayers first because if he were not to tell us it would be a direct violation of our rights as taxpayers.
ReplyDeleteI don't think we are in a great position to be helping every other country right now. However, I do think the President should be able to make decisions like he has about this foreign aid. He should not have to consult the taxpayers, because the taxpayers are the people who elected him to make these decisions. The American taxpayers chose President O'Bama to run our country, and now they essentially have to live with his decisions whether they like it or not. It is the president's job to make decisions such as this, and he got all the permission he needed to make these decisions when he was elected.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jake that we should not get involved with more relief situations that do not occur in our country with our economy the way it is. It is obviously not a good idea to give away money when the country is in a recession. However, I do believe we should try to help them in anyway we can without spending too much money. Many people are struggling as it is and it would make more sense to put our nations money back into our economy with things that will benefit our situation. However, many people in Chile and Haiti are in much worse situations than people in the U.S.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Taylor that the U.S. is too focused on other countries problems at the moment. Our country is going through a rough time economically, and many people are struggling to maintain an income. Although we are the most powerful nation in the world and can help other countries, we have to look after ourselves too. If we want to get out of the recession, we should stop giving so much money to relief efforts. Once the recession is over, we will be able to help many more countries once again without it being a big deal.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Gavin. We cannot send as much help as we did with Haiti. With all of the money we are printing it decreases the value. We have our own problems to worry about. It shouldn't be just a national decision to help, but an international decision. We should give other countries their time to shine. We cannot spend so much money on other countries when we are in a recession ourselves.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mitchel. We should help Chile in their time of need. We should always treat other countries the way that we would want to be treated. Maybe if we helped other countries financially, then other countries could help us with our recession.
ReplyDeleteWe should help Chile. It shows that we are putting others be us and what a great nation we are. Many people have the views that the United States is a place of terrible people. While helping Haiti and Chile, we show that we are somebody else. Even with the economic crisis affecting us, I am sure we can pull through this. The recession hit the United States quite hard, but we are already out of it. Stocks and graphs are all showing signs of us getting out of economic trouble.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mitchell. We can help ourselves out along with other countries. The United States can set aside a certain amount of money to help with natural relief efforts. At this time, we are also watching what we give. If we watch the amount of dollars spent on a country, we can limit the decline of the economy.
ReplyDeleteI agree and also disagree with Jake. It is wise to help our fellow citizens out, but we are also obligated to help others. The United States is a big country. We have the resources to help others, but to an extent. If we were to help everyone with no limit, then it may cause a problem for us.
ReplyDeleteI think that we don't have enough money to support ourselves let alone another country. I'm all for helping other countries, but we need to get our country fully stable economically first. If we help other countries financially then we could be in danger of our economy dropping more than it already has. If our country's economy drops anymore than it has could be risking many lives. I understand that other countries need our help and we should b there for them to help out in anyway possible, but no to the point where it effects our country in a negative way.
ReplyDeleteI do not think the U.S should get involved in Chile. We are in economic trouble and helping out in all these countries is not helping. I understand Chile is in need of help but we have to put our country on top of the list. We have to worry about our countries struggles other than assisting in every other countries disasters.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Gavin. We can't send all this money and supplies over to Chile. We are already helping out Haiti and we can't even afford living in our country right now. We need to worry about our economic struggles before we do anything else.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Taylor. Our country is focusing on helping out others too much. I understand we want to help out other countries but we can't afford it at this time. People are having hard enough times surviving on a day to day basis and raising taxes to help other countries is not helping the problem out.
ReplyDeleteI know that America is in a bit of a economic crisis right now but its still our duty to help people. As a world superpower its our responsibility to help those countries when they need it. China cares too much about themselves to help and Russia is still trying to repair itself from the Cold War and the fall of its Communist state and does not want to help either. I'm not saying that we give them billions and billions of dollars. I say that we wait until they at least ask for help them send aid.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jake. We dont have enough money to take care of all the people who suffer from natural disasters. We can barely take care of our own country and now we are assisting two countries that have been hit with major earthquakes. They can hate us all they want for not helping them but we just dont have enough money to really assist them
ReplyDeleteI dont agree with Connor. Yes the people who have been hit with these natural disasters are fellow humans but they need to help themselves if anything. Its not our fault or our problem that a earthquake hit them. If we helped out every single person from every single natural disaster America wouldnt even be able to take care of our own citizens. We cannot give assistance to all of the people who are hurt by natural disasters.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Shaun. We are in economic trouble and helping out in all these countries is not helping. I also understand Chile is in need of help but we have to put our country on top of the list. We have to worry about our countries struggles other than assisting in every other countries disasters.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that our country needs to be involved in this. I know we are America and it is our "duty" to serve and help others who have lesser than us. But how much can we do? We just helped Haiti a ton and pretty much saved them from disappearing of the map, plus on top of that we are already in a troubled time in our country economically. I think we should be there for them if they need anything but not try to save them as well.
ReplyDeleteClayton and Jake made a good point when they said that the people of these countries do have less than us so we should try to help them but not give a ton of money. We cannot afford to keep helping everyone who comes calling to us. I know that President Obama is a very liberal person and will try to help anyone who asks but eventually you have to step back and ask yourself is it worth it for OUR country?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Connor, i believe that President Obama shouldn't have just thrown us out there at them so quickly because then maybe they could realize we won't say no. We should wait for them to ask for our help and how much they want. It is our duty to help others but that is not our only duty as a world power.
ReplyDeleteThe United States believes that if there is a natural disastet anywhere that we will be right there to help them out. We were there for Haiti and we gave a lot of money. We have spent some millions of dollars in Haiti. Now that Chile had one of the biggest earthquakes in the world's history, we should be there to help them. Although we beilieve that we should be there to help, I do not believe that we have the money to give the sufficient help that is needed. We can help but it will not be as good as it was for Haiti.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Joey. We cannot do alot of help. Yes we can send food and resources, but we cannot send the money. If other countries are waiting for us to do something about it, then everybody is in for a big surprise. We cannot be the first country that everyone looks to first when something drastic happens. We are out of the recession but we are still in a bunch of debt. If we spend as much money on Chile as we did Haiti then we will be even more in debt and in a bigger situation.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with Conner. We cannot help Chile. There is no money, we can try and set off an amount of money, but we will still be a numerous amount of debt. It is our duty to help people because we are America, but other countries need to be there for them. We cannot be the only country to help, the other countries need to quickly realize that they need to help or this whole big situation will just keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger, till the whole world is effected by it.
ReplyDeleteThe president should definitely check in with those of us who are actually paying for the support. Also, I think we should support Chile, we have supported nearly every other nation that has suffered a disaster, why stop? It wouldn't be right to not offer our assistance.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Connor, we should wait for Chile's request for help. Chile is way better off than Haiti was from the start, so even though they are suffering, they have a good chance of recovering. WIth Haiti, we needed to jump in and help asap becuase they were starting off struggling. If we wait until Chile requests help, we could save a lot of money during the economic crisis.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Brendan, if the US is the only country helping, we will just dig ourselves into a bigger hole than the one we are already in. We are in debt, and so are other countries, but if we all help Chile and Haiti, a better recovery for everyone is more likely.
ReplyDeleteI think the U.S. should help Chile with the damage from the earthquake. Obviously we can't help as much as we did for Haiti because Chile is in better shape than Haiti. But both deserve help. I think the U.S. is a leadership kind of country so we should step up and help. I don't think we could just sit back and watch their country crumble.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with Brendan completely, don't you think that if the U.S. had a natural disaster like Chile or Haiti did that they would be there to help us? I know our economy is down but we can't just stand back and say oh, you're people are dying, sorry we can't help. That would be selfish of us.
ReplyDeleteI think that the U.S. doesnt have the money right now. We al just gave alot of money to Haiti, people may not want to do the same for Chile. If helping out only means sending money then the U.S. should find helping out in a diffrent way. Like sending volenteers to help out in Chile.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mitchel, if we help them out maybe sometime if we need help they will be there for us. I would expect others to help us out if we've helped them out.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Margaret on helping Chile, but we also need to think about how much we already have donr for Haiti because at some point were going to run out of money and that time has come. We don't have the money to completely support Chile. Granted that they aren't as poor as Haiti, but still.
ReplyDeletei think that the US should still ty to contribute to Chile's relief efforts. the amount definately shouldn't be as much as what Haiti recieved from the US. Chile isn't as poor as Haiti which jessica said. the US is having its own economic problems along with many other countries so it shouldn't be shocking that the US relief funds to Chile are going to be significantly less. along with being economically better off than Haiti, Chile has an organized government system in place. this makes recovering froma disaster much more organized.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure what the US should do given the current economic standpoint. Yes, i believe we should help them, but we already have helped Haiti in so many ways that we really have no room to help Chile. Though we might be able to help them in some small ways but deffinately not as much as we have helped Haiti. Yes, i think that the idea should be brought to the US adn addressed by the people before offering help to the Chilean President. I believe that we first are ok financially before going and spending a ton of money to help others.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Gavin that we can help Chile, but not like we helped Haiti because we already spent a ton of our money for the Haitians and we cannot afford to do that again for the Chileans .We should worry about our own problems when financially in trouble and plus its not like there aren't other countries that would be more than willing to help Chile.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Brendan that when a natural disaster happens we are always there to help in everyway. We already spent tons of money on Haiti,which means we now can't provide for Chile as well as or for the amount of help they really need.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that the U.S. should get involved in another earthquake fund. We are struggling enough as it is. Even though it may seem like the right thing to do its probably not smart economically. I dont think that the president should just donate money without asking American tax payers first. I think he should at least try to get the approval of us first that way we dont have any problems in the future.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with Jake, Obama needs the economic boosting plan to happen before we go and fund this natural disaster. We need to make sure that we can do this and still come out of the economic problems.
ReplyDeleteI agree with mackenzie we have already helped Haiti so much that we might not have enough to help chile. Haiti was understandable to help because it is so bad over there economically. Chile is doing much better than Haiti.
ReplyDeleteI think that we should stay out of Chile they have enough resources to maintain a stable society unlike Haiti where there are little resources and leadership. We need to address our future as a nation because we are in an economic situation and needs to be fixed.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Brian we are in a lot of problems here in America its hard to go out and help another country.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jake as well we need to make sure our economy is stable before we go out and start throwing more money away that we will never see again.
ReplyDeleteI don't think we should help out Chile because we have our own problems to worry about. Right now were in an economic recession, fighting a war, and currently trying to help out Haiti. We have to face the fact that we can't come to the rescue of every country in trouble. They need to learn to take care of themselves during tragedys such as an earthquake. I think the gov. has the obligation to present the idea of helping out Chile to the taxpayers because it would be there money that would be used to help out Chile.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jake when he says that we need to ensure our own safety and economic status. There are plenty of homeless people in our own country that need help.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Andrew when he says that Chile can take care of themselves better then Haiti could because Chile has their own resources and good leadership.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that the US should assist Chile with our own money. We already spent a bunch of money for the Haiti relief effort. I think that maybe we could assist Chile with people, and other things that don't involve hurting our own country in the process. If Chile truely does need help, other countries will help out too. So, it isn't like Chile is going to be left by itself to solve its own problems. If we want to help other countries like this, we need to stabilize our own country first.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Shaun. We have to focus on helping our own country before we help others. If helping other countries is a major priority for us, then we need to take the measures to help our country too. There is no way that we are going to be able to continue to help others without providing some way of assistance to our own country and economy.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Connor. If Chile truely does need help they will ask for it. We shouldn't just automatically pledge whatever help is needed without their say. If and when they need help they will notify everyone. Yes, it is obvious that they are struggling, but if everyone starts to help like they did with Haiti, it could just create more chaos. The chaos that was going on in Haiti did not help the issue, and the same thing would happen with Chile.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Molly who agreed with me. We should focus on helping America first then helping the other countries. Why would we possibly give tax payers money to other countries when we need it more at home? In any other time we should help other countries but since were in such an economic crisis we need to focus on America first.
ReplyDeleteI agree with mason as well. Chilie is not nearly as poor as haiti was and the devastation was not as bad as Hiti either. They have more money to support themselves so they do not need as much help and aid as Haiti did.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Molly because we don't have enough money to support another country. We just don't have to kind of money to help. I'm sure that we would love to help and we probably will, but we're just not in the right place financially. Plus Chile isn't poor by no means and could probably take care of themselves anyway. And we're not the only country that wants to help. I'm sure there will be other countries willing to help Chile and it's people.
ReplyDeletei agree with brendan when he says that we can't do much. a lot of countries are in economic troubles. its horrible timing for these disasters to occur. but the US can find some way to help these people. we did for haiti, we can do the same for chile. just a waaay smaller amount of money because they aren't as bad off economically as haiti was/is.
ReplyDeleteThis is hard to judge, because we really need to rebuild our economy and we've already helped Haiti as much as possible. I think we must let this one go to willing taxpayers and charities, which come up with every crisis anyway. We should mainly send over supplies, but focus on helping ourselves get out of our own financial problems.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with mason. He sounds so selfish. We can't just say "Sorry, we've got our own problems. Maybe next time." That's not what being a good nation is. We can't be too focused on ourselves. Maybe that's why the world hates us.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Andrew, we probally shouldn’t help out chile, they do have enough resources. They aren’t poor like Haiti , and they do have some what of leadership to where they can get things back together. Unlike Haiti which doesn’t have enough leadership, to get things going again.
ReplyDeleteOkay, i dissagree with "Joeyfogey55" for disagreeing with Mason. He DOESNT sound selfish. We need to at least worry about ourselves , Our counrty cant support everyother counrty that has an earthquake! We cant even support our selves at this time. Sorry if i sound a bit selfish, im just saying..
ReplyDeleteI believe that the United States should not get envoled with the earthquake. I believe this because the we have already spent a lot of money in the earthquake the affected Hati and this country need more attention i believe because it is much more poorer than chile. I also believe that we have our own problem and need to attned to those problem first such as the money we owe other countries and the war over seas.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Joey, because i do beieve that charities that are not goverment run should raise money to help Chile and they can also send supplies over to chile. The goverment should worry about the counties problems first then look to help other countries.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with Mitchel, I disagree because yes it is there time of need but leave it to other countries to help because we have our own problem right now. This i why i belive the goverment should take care of our problems at home first to the american people are happy and then look to help other places to help when they need it.
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