A short while back I came across an old guy on my way through town who'd tripped and smashed his head open on a phone box.
So I skipped the game I was heading to and spent the next hour helping a drunk concussed guy into an ambulance.
Why should I help him? What made him special? What makes it my responsibility? I was standing right frikkin' there watching, that's why.
The 'people' who 'lived off the land' for thousands of years? Mostly illiterate, innumerate, and died at ages 35-40. If they were lucky.
You don't own a computer just because you're hard-working and smart. It's because you're smart and hard-working and had the insane good luck to be born as one of the small fraction of the world's population who get a starting point good enough that that makes a difference.
I don't need to know you to know that; the fact that you can post here makes it a near-as-dammit certainty.
As you said, some people live in disaster zones or wars and genuinely need help. This 'some people' is not a few stragglers; it's tens of millions. Where the hell do you think that UN aid goes? Look it up sometime. And until you do, you've been too lazy to comment on the issue, so don't.
The ignorance in this post is depressing, even for/.
There's already been a "considerable reduction in tourism"; all the TSA screwing around at airports has tanked the tourist trade. Most people who can be discouraged from flying in already are; it's one of the factors that's been hammering the economy.
Not likely to get much worse.
Slashdot Mirror
So I skipped the game I was heading to and spent the next hour helping a drunk concussed guy into an ambulance.
Why should I help him? What made him special? What makes it my responsibility? I was standing right frikkin' there watching, that's why.
The 'people' who 'lived off the land' for thousands of years? Mostly illiterate, innumerate, and died at ages 35-40. If they were lucky.
You don't own a computer just because you're hard-working and smart. It's because you're smart and hard-working and had the insane good luck to be born as one of the small fraction of the world's population who get a starting point good enough that that makes a difference.
I don't need to know you to know that; the fact that you can post here makes it a near-as-dammit certainty.
As you said, some people live in disaster zones or wars and genuinely need help. This 'some people' is not a few stragglers; it's tens of millions. Where the hell do you think that UN aid goes? Look it up sometime. And until you do, you've been too lazy to comment on the issue, so don't.
The ignorance in this post is depressing, even for /.
There's already been a "considerable reduction in tourism"; all the TSA screwing around at airports has tanked the tourist trade. Most people who can be discouraged from flying in already are; it's one of the factors that's been hammering the economy. Not likely to get much worse.