As I discussed in a previous post, many Americans are self-centered and do not believe in helping each other out, especially when the federal or state government is part of the equation. We have seen many examples with this whole health care reform thing.
I was astonished to read the following article from the BBC, which states that a group of rich Germans has started a petition to increase taxes on wealthy people in order to reduce poverty and social inequality.
How many rich Americans would be interested in starting a movement like that here? To be honest, I don't think many of my compatriots up North would jump on this bandwagon either. Note: I would.
Perhaps this is a marginal movement, but the fact that even a few believe in 'sharing their wealth' for the common good tells a lot about their society. This should be a lesson for all of us.
Here is the original BBC article:
Rich Germans demand higher taxes
A group of rich Germans has launched a petition calling for the government to make wealthy people pay higher taxes.
The group say they have more money than they need, and the extra revenue could fund economic and social programmes to aid Germany's economic recovery.
Germany could raise 100bn euros (£91bn) if the richest people paid a 5% wealth tax for two years, they say.
The petition has 44 signatories so far, and will be presented to newly re-elected Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The group say the financial crisis is leading to an increase in unemployment, poverty and social inequality.
Simply donating money to deal with the problems is not enough, they want a change in the whole approach.
"The path out of the crisis must be paved with massive investment in ecology, education and social justice," they say in the petition.
Those who had "made a fortune through inheritance, hard work, hard-working, successful entrepreneurship, or investment" should contribute by paying more to alleviate the crisis.
The man behind the petition, Dieter Lehmkuhl, told Berlin's Tagesspiegel that there were 2.2 million people in Germany with a fortune of more than 500,000 euros.
If they all paid the tax for two years, Germany could raise 100bn euros to fund ecological programmes, education and social projects, said the retired doctor and heir to a brewery.
Signatory Peter Vollmer told AFP news agency he was supporting the proposal because he had inherited "a lot of money I do not need".
He said the tax would be "a viable and socially acceptable way out of the flagrant budget crisis".
The group held a demonstration in Berlin on Wednesday to draw attention to their plans, throwing fake banknotes into the air.
Mr Vollmer said it was "really strange that so few people came".
Note: the bold characters in the article above are mine.
TIP:
Enter the amount, and click "Tip" to submit!
peterguy
Jan Sand
Ted Frier
Bob Simpson
Tom Cordle
Rutherford Lawson
Salon.com
Comments
And of course, the Republican in Congress all opposed this idea.
I'm a Canadian living in Canada, my father is an American living in SC, and I have lots of good friends that live near Seattle and frankly none of the American people I know fit your description of being self-centered or unwilling to help each other.
Your generalization is both inaccurate and unfair.
I am inviting you to look at the following two links:
Insurance: "Life is not fair & it will drive up my rates"
Couple who lost their daughter-in-law and unborn grandchild due to a medical emergency heckled by crowd.
“Earlier this month, members of the Chicago Tea Party Patriots heckled a pair of town hall speakers who lost their daughter-in-law and unborn grandchild due to a medical emergency. Dan and Midge Hough wanted to explain how a lack of health care may have contributed to the two deaths.”
Listen to the interview from the couple who was booed (check the second video around 4:30 minutes) and tell me whether this means that people care about each other.
If you want I can provide you with additional examples.
Thanks for dropping by anyway.
With this said, I can say that all my close friends here are people who would get out of their way to help others; hence explaining why they are my friends. Nonetheless, this trait cannot apply to everyone either.
And you're right you did not say that all or every American is self centered...my bad, it was late, I was tired and I couldn't sleep so I was trolling Salon.
Any self centered, selfish, and greedy person is one too many no matter where they live. In this case however you have to admit that a few examples do not qualify as a trend or indicator of the attitude of a nation.
While I was growing up in Quebec I would get beat up almost every day (except on Holidays) by a group of 6 - 12 kids because at first I didn't speak french. A year later when I spoke perfect french I would get beat up because my name wasn't Belanger or Vachon.
Should I think that every Quebecker is a xenophobic piece of crap?
Obviously not.
I've grown up in Quebec, France, and Alberta. Since then I've worked in Calgary, Nigeria, Houston, Dallas, Washington, and am now back in Calgary.
The one thing I've seen is that no matter where I go is that people are pretty much the same everywhere.
Regarding the whole health care debate (in general not just in the US), I find that that is one issue I'm deeply conflicted on myself.
Generally speaking I believe in certain universal rights such as health care and education. More specifically I believe that your access to these rights/services should not be dictated by your ability to pay.
Having said that I'm also highly skeptical of any public (government delivered) option.
Since I've gotten married and had kids I haven't had a single good experience (with the sole exception of the birth of the kids) with the health care system in Canada and my wife and I have to be constantly vigilant with our kids schools. The stories I could tell...
So what is the solution? Honestly I don't know. My dad who is a staunch Republican in SC staunchly believes in the current system (but will admit that there are problems that could be addressed by insurance coverage reform) while my mother who is a staunch Liberal here in Canada is a firm believer in our Canadian system.
Maybe the truth is somewhere in the middle. I'm wondering if privately delivered and publicly funded would work up here.
I’m sorry that you had problems with follow French Quebecers. I know my father-in-law can also relate, but in his case it was back in the 40s.
I understand that a few ‘bad apples’ do not represent the rest of the society. However, in this case, it is more than a few people. As my American wife (note: I am also American) recently told me, if the average American would be more considerate or benevolent, we would have Universal health care. When you have more than 40% (if not more depending upon how the question is framed in various polls) of the people who do not want it and the main reasons are based on the fact that “I will pay more taxes” (but with lower overall out-of-pocket costs, as discussed in the links below) or “I will become more inconvenienced to get access to my doctor,” we have an important societal problem. I have observed these kinds of comments over and over. Furthermore, I have seen first-hand how many of my close friends are suffering because of inadequate health care coverage. On the other hand, I haven’t noted this kind of mentality up North (at least in Ontario and Quebec).
I wrote several well-received posts about the health care systems here and in Canada. I am aware that they have been consulted by many medical insurance companies, the federal government and members of Congress. You can find my views here:
I am having problems with the links. I will try the links in the next comment. However, you can find them when scroll down my various posts.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.