International Disasters Give Americans a Self-Esteem Boost

I'm a little confused about all of this nonsense on the news and the blogs and websites about American pride because we help everyone else out when they run into problems.  Our economy is depressed, but you can be happy about the fact that instead of helping you, we're helping them.  See here.

Like, I get it.  We do a lot for other nations, and the world in general, but when we can't even keep our own issues in check, I have a small problem with the media reporting about how awesome we are because we give more to other countries.  Something is wrong with this picture.

The United States has an absurd deficit, now at about $12 Trillion.  So since we don't have money we borrow from out buddies we hate, China, Sweden, and then instead of using that money to fix our problems we give that money to other poor bastards, Haiti, Bumblefuck-opia.  How is it honestly possible that we are putting other nations down (like Russia and China) for not giving enough to this Haitian disaster, and us saying that we're the best.  We shouldn't even be making that an issue!  This was a terrible fucking disaster, people are dead in the thousands and thousands more are homeless, and we have the audacity to talk about how great we are.  Pride in what you are is fantastic.  THIS IS NOT THE ISSUE.  Help because you want to help and help because people need help, not because you are looking for recognition, or for a fucking tax write-off.

Back to the borrow/donating thing really quickly.  I'm going to break it down with the "friends" metaphor again.  Imagine that amongst your friends that one of your friends is a degenerate gambler and constantly needs assistance in paying off bills.  Another one of your friends is the gamblers best/good friend, and constantly loans him money because he knows that he's better than that.  Then you've got another friend who loses his job, and then gambler comes along and gives this dude who got laid off a ton of money and support. Gambler wants everyone to know that he helped him the most, but somehow we're supposed to ignore the fact that gamblers in debt to a million of his friends?!  Fuck that.

I'm not a fan of people doing things because they want recognition for it, and want to be known as "the best giver".  Fuck that.  This Haitian disaster is not what it's about.  It's not about America and how great we are because we gave other people's money to Haiti (nevermind that people are hungry and losing their homes in the continental U.S.), it's about helping less people die over in Haiti because they are completely unequipped to deal with this disaster.  Stop making it about US you fucking media bastards.