Say Anything Blog

While not wishing to become too deeply involved in a ‘who is meaner than who’ debate (could probably get more than a little boring) I think it is important that, in assessing the generosity of each nation, comparisons should be made on the relative basis of the GDP of each nation, rather than on the brute figure donated (i.e. divide amount given by GDP). This would give a more accurate indication of ‘stinginess’/generosity.

Rob -
I’m not getting into any debates here (certainly not defending France, which objectively seems to be pretty miserly) - just pointing out the best way of measuring things.

Two other things - I see you’ve passed 400,000 (congratulations), and I love your gravatar (what happened to that show? It just seemed to disappear in this country)

America’s GDP: $10.99 trillion.

France’s GDP: $1.661 trillion

America’s donation of $35 million divided by the GDP equals 0.0032.

France’s donation of $135,000 divided by the GDP equals 0.0000812.

France is pretty stingy by that measurement.

And as far as this debate being boring, I wouldn’t be bringing it up were my country and my President not being accused of being “stingy” and uncaring despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

The war against illegal plunder has been fought since the beginning of the world. But how is… legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime. Then abolish this law without delay … If such a law is not abolished immediately it will spread, multiply and develop into a system.

Frédéric Bastiat, The Law

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

I’m not getting into any debates here (certainly not defending France, which objectively seems to be pretty miserly) - just pointing out the best way of measuring things.

I know Mark.  I was just trying to point out that I wasn’t writing this stuff just for the sake of starting a frivilous argument.

I see you’ve passed 400,000 (congratulations)

Thanks.  It still amazes me that people actually come here to read this stuff.

I love your gravatar (what happened to that show? It just seemed to disappear in this country)

Its still on the air here, though I don’t think it ever became as popular as was expected.  I’m not much of a TV watcher, but I try to catch it when its on.  It never fails to crack me up.

And the Gravatars are very cool.  You should get one.

The war against illegal plunder has been fought since the beginning of the world. But how is… legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime. Then abolish this law without delay … If such a law is not abolished immediately it will spread, multiply and develop into a system.

Frédéric Bastiat, The Law

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Mark suggests, “I think it is important that, in assessing the generosity of each nation, comparisons should be made on the relative basis of the GDP of each nation, rather than on the brute figure donated (i.e. divide amount given by GDP).”

How about measuring it according to population?  America is around 5 % of the world.  Just five.  We are so rich because we are free (largely) to act on our resources.

This would give a more accurate indication of ’stinginess’/generosity.

Just measure it by population.  America far outclasses almost all other nations combined.  *And there’s no reason that a lot of other countries couldn’t be near or just as wealthy.

Unsure about that, likwidshoe.

For example, let’s take sub-Saharan Africa as a whole (roughly the same number of inhabitants as America) - by your way of calculation, the citizens here should give, in total, precisely the same amount as America in order to be equally generous.

I don’t think that makes a lot of sense.

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